The Weapon, The Serpent, And The Vampire
by Kioyuki Oniga
Summary: Wolverines clone X23 has survived everything HYRDA has thrown at her, so far, now she's back at the Institute can she survive their newest ally and the key to Wolverines lost memories, the vapiric mutant assasin Hellblade?
1. At home with the clone

The Next Evolution: The Weapon, The Serpent And The Vampire

Disclaimer: I don't own the X-men, Hellblade's mine though

Chapter one: At home with the clone

As the other students ran around outside, enjoying a game of mutant dodgeball, the Institute's latest addition stayed up in her room, her faces less than an inch from her window, watching the others. It had been a week since she'd come to the Institute and aside from coming down for meals and training (on her own), she'd stayed up in her room the entire time. The Professor had made her roommates with Jubilee, hoping the outgoing chinease mutant would be able to persuade X-23 to come out of her shell, so far, she'd made little success. Her heightened hearing sensed someone walking down the hall toward her door and she knew who it was before he'd even knocked on the door.

"Come in" she said in a monotone voice

"How come you're in here? You're supposed to be outside with the others" Logan asked

"I was not feeling very well so I was excused" she replied

"That's garbage and you know it, the reason I brought you here was so you'd be around other kids your age, know what it's like to be a kid and you aint gonna learn if you spend all day in here" Logan replied, a little more harshly than he'd intended it to be

"It does not feel any different from my cell at HYRDA"

"Well, for one you're not a prisoner here, hell, you've already proved you can take on every other student here and win so if you wanted to leave we couldn't exactly stop you"

"Do you remember why I agreed to come here with you?"

"Sure, I get you answers about HYDRA, how many of them are left, who helped create and train you, make them pay for what they did"

"And have you?"

"I'm working on it, it's hard with SHEILD still watching me"

"Then my illness will remain until you come up with something" X-23 said

"Look, I know you weren't exactly happy to come here but could ya at least try and give it a shot? For me if nothing else" Logan asked her

"I will try" she replied, standing up and leaving the room

That night Logan tossed and turned in his sleep, the few memories he had coming back to haunt him

_Germany, 1945_

_He charged forwards through the pouring rain through the camp, flanked on one side by Captain America, the other by someone he knew, but he couldn't remember what they looked like, only that they dressed in black. They reached the detention building and Captain America raised his shield, preparing to throw it at the door to smash it down, but the figure on Logans left had already swung into action, they drew and hurled a long curved sword at the door, the blade hitting the lock dead on, shattering it. The door swung open, the figure made an 'after you' motion and three warriors entered it, they reached the final cell at the end of the long dark corridor and again they prepared to smash it down, only for solid iron door to buckle and compact into a tiny ball, on the other side was a young boy, his hand outstreatched. _

_The three soldiers looked at each other for a moment, dumbstruck before their senses kicked in, the figure scooped the boy up in its arms and the three turned around and ran back they way they'd came. As they neared the edge of the camp they heared the roar of gunfire and glanced back over their shoulders. Behind them were two dozen german soldiers with a man with a red mask at the front directing them, The Red Skull, Logan thought, not knowing how he'd remembered the name. _

_As the soldiers got nearer the figure handed the boy to Logan and stepped backwards, turning to face the oncoming Germans, Logan turned as well to back them up but Captain America clasped a hand on his shoulder and shook his head, he looked at the figure and he saluted, Logan did the same and the figure bowed in reply before drawing both its swords and throwing itself at the oncoming Germans, screaming a warcry as Logan, the boy and Captain America continued onwards, heading back to Allied lines_

Logan woke up, drenched in sweat. He'd only been able to remember a fraction of that battle before and suddenly now the whole thing was crystal clear to him, he felt happy, that meant his memory was slowly coming back but at the same time he had a very ominous feeling, that it was a premonition of things to come.

_The Canadian wilderness, HYDRAS base, British Columbia, Canada_

"So you will do it?" Lady Hydra asked eagerly

"I will but my skills do not come cheaply" a voice said from the other side of the table

"Yes I know, Fisk said you would not take the job for a dollar less than twenty million"

"He was right, although I did give him a discount last time I worked for him. Would you please remind me of the perameters of this assignment?"

"You go in, get the weapon…"

"She is not a weapon, she is a child" the voice said, interrupting rudely

"Fine child then, you go in, get the child, get out and gut anyone who gets in your way" Lady Hydra said, tossing a large number of photos across the table, each one a picture of someone from the Institute

"Very well, but one more thing"

"What is it?" Lady Hydra asked, the voice stood up, drew one of its swords and drove it through the table, impaling one of the pictures

"Wolverine is mine!" it hissed with barely constrained anger and rage

In chapter 2 – Nick Fury returns to warn Logan of a new and deadly threat to him and to the X-men

To be continued, as always, all reviews are greately appreciated


	2. Watch out, there's vampires about

First thanks to everyone who's reviwed so far

And to answer your question X00001, Deadpool will star in this fic, although I'm not sure how big as role he'll get

**Deadpool: What? I aint good enough for your fic? C'mon I got tons of talent, just look (pulls out a unicycle and does a hand stand on it), I'm destined to be a star, talent thy name is Wade Wilson**

Me: Damm it, that's the third time that's happened today (grabs broom) get back in the fic (whacks Deadpool with it), now remember Deadpool we had a long talk about this, you need to stay in the fic or you'll get a fifty percent pay cut (not that you're getting paid end )

**Deadpool: Yea, and I called my agent**

Me: You've got an agent?

**Deadpool: Well, I kidnapped one**

Me: O.K, that does it, get back in the fic or you be co-starring in a Fullmetal Alchemist fic (evil grin) with Major Armstrong

**Deadpool: Noooo! Not the pink sparkles, anything but the sparkles, O.K, O.K I'm going (teleports away)**

Me: Heh, works every time, now for the disclaimer (Deadpool teleports back in)

**Deadpool: He doesn't own the X-men, or me, so long suckers**

Me: Remeber, Sparkles

**Deadpool: Right, but you'll need to catch me first, (teleports away again)**

Me: Sigh enjoy the chapter while I go look for him and try to get him back in this fic, he's probably taunting the Avengers again

Chapter 2: Watch out, there's vampires about

The building looked the same as it always did, built from white bricks and gleaming brilliantly in the autumn sunshine, the sections he'd been informed had been damaged in the recent incident had already been rebuilt. The pool at the back glittered with the reflecting sun and the trees that lined the edges of the grounds were a mix of deep red, firey orange and bright yellow, the autumn season definitely had the Institute in its chilly, temperate grip.

The helicopter touched down outside the Institute, the down force from its blades pressing down on the green grass. It's doors slid open and a man in his late thirties with greying hair, wearing his usual secret agent style attire as well as his traditional eyepatch and chewing a toothpick. Nick Fury paused while the two SHEILD agents he'd brought with him disembarked before walking up the shingle path to the front doors. He waited a moment and adjusted his eye patch before knocking sharply on the door. A few minutes later the door opened and Kurts eyes widened with shock when he saw the three grim looking soldiers in front of him

"I swear I didn't do it, they never even proved I was anywhere near the chem lab when that flour bomb was set…" he blurted out

"Take it easy kid, I just need to talk to Wolverine, know here he is?"

"Oh, right. He's in the longue"

"Thanks" Fury replied as he brushed past Kurt and strode confidently into the mansion, the other two SHEILD agents flanking him. El Ninio and Strike Force X were hanging out in the living room watching TV with their mentors when Fury walked though the open door.

"Logan" he said curtly, remaining close to the door in case he needed to beat a retreat if Weapon X was in a bad mood

"Fury" Wolverine replied with a note of hostility in his voice, rising and extending two of his claws, from past experience he knew when the Director of SHEILD made house calls, something very bad had happened, or was about to. Luckily Fury knew how to break the tension

"Hey Zander" he said to Stormcaller

"Hey uncle Nick" Zander replied, to looks of amazement and surprise from almost everyone present

"Any chance we can talk in private?" Fury asked

"Sure" Wolverine replied, standing up and leaving the living room with Fury and the other agents

"What?" Stormcaller asked the others, who looked like they'd seen a pig fly past the window

"You didn't tell us your uncle was the freakin director of SHEILD" Solaris said

"Well, me and my parents don't really talk about uncle Nick, he made us promise not to tell anyone, matters of national security and stuff. Plus we don't really see him aside from at Christmas, he always gives really cool presents" Stormcaller replied to further looks of shock and amazements from the others, including Storm.

"I hope my nephew's not been too much trouble here" Fury said, trying to distract anyone who might be eavesdropping on the conversation

"Wouldn't know, Storm's his mentor, not me" Wolverine replied gruffly. Neither of them had noticed a strange looking silver mist following, creeping along the floor behind them. Or that a certain blue elf was nowhere to be found.

"Right, I'll make a note to ask her if I see her next time I'm here" Fury said. They reached the helicopter and climbed inside, as soon as the other two agents had gotten in and closed the doors the chopper started up and took off, leaving the Institutes grounds and heading into the cloudy grey sky

"O.K, what was so damm important you had to drag me all the up here to talk about it?" Wolverine asked. Fury pressed a button on a console inside the helicopter, a HYDRA logo appeared on a screen set above the console

"This is, I'm guessing you remember it?"

"My memory's not that bad Fury"

"Good, now do you know who this is?" Fury asked, pressing another button, an image of X-23 popped up on the screen. Wolverine rounded on Fury, immediately extending his claws

"What's this about? Is SHEILD after her again?" he snarled. The two agents raised their rifles but at a gesture from Fury they immediately lowered them again

"Relax Logan, SHEILD's not interested in pursuing someone who's 'dead'" he said, Logan looked at the other two agents

"They know?"

"Yes but don't worry, I trained these two myself from when they were raw recruits at SHEILD training camp, they won't say anything"

"If you vouch for them that's good enough for me, now what's this all about?" Wolverine asked. Furys face darkened

"We've been having problems tracking down HYDRA, some of their higher ups have friends in powerful places and they've gone underground, well, more underground then they were before. Their motto is 'slay one of our heads and two more shall take its place', looks like that's not as cliché as it sounds"

"They're after the kid again aren't they?" Logan asked, Fury nodded

"Yeah, and they're not messing around now, they've sent a couple of high end mercs to get her. We caught Taskmaster and Deadpool a few months ago, so far niether's cracked, but it must be getting to Deadpool, all he goes on about is yellow boxes, we also got a couple of their own guys, Gauntlet and Omega Red but HYDRAs contacts sprung them" Fury told Wolverine

"If you've already got them then why tell me? Sounds like you've got it under control"

"They've sent someone else, someone much, much worse" Fury said, he brought up another image on the screen. On it a large group of SHEILD agents opened fire on a figure dressed in black, the figure moved almost too fast for Logan to see, in half a minute, all the SHEILD agents were lying on the floor, dead.

"Who's that?"

"We don't know"

"You don't know, you're SHEILD, you always know"

"Well we messed up this time, so sue us. All we know is he goes by the name Hellblade, he's one of the most elusive mercenaries in the world, and he's probably a mutant"

"Probably?" Wolverine asked sceptically

"Well you saw what he did to my agents, what else is he gonna be? He worked for the US government in world war two in Europe, alongside Captain America, and you"

"Me?" Wolverine asked, then he remembered the dream and kept quiet

"The footage I just showed you was from one of our safe houses in Oregon, he took out thirty of my agents to get to the HYDRA informant we were hiding there, all in less than twenty two minutes, from crossing the state line to killing the informant"

"And HYDRA's sent him after the kid?"

"From what SHEILDs contacts can tell us, yes, apparently he's worked for HYDRA a lot"

"Why're you telling me this?" Wolverine asked

"I figured the X-men could do a better job of protecting the kid than SHEILD could, plus our HYDRA contacts told us he was heavily involved in training weapon X-23. The kid wants answers right?"

"Yeah"

"Then if anyone can give them to her, this guy's the best bet" Fury replied as the helicopter descended back down to the Institute. It landed and the doors opened

"Well, so long Logan, good luck" Fury said

"Wait, we aint alone" he said and reached down below the helicopter and grabbed something. He then dragged Nightcrawler from underneath the chopper by his tail and held him upside down

"Enjoy the ride elf?" Wolverien asked

"Very much, thank you" Kurt replied nervously, unable to think of anything else to say

"What did you hear?" he demanded. The silver mist rose up from the floor of the chopper and reformed into Katie

"Pretty much all of it"

"Did anyone else hear anything?" Wolverine asked

"Nope" said a voice over a two way radio Kurt had strapped to his belt. Logan grabbed the radio and pressed the button

"That you Rogue?" he asked

"Damm it" Rogue cursed over the airwaves

"O.K you three, you're not going to say anything about this to anyone, especially not to the kid, or you'll be grounded until you graduate from college" Wolverine said

"O.K O.K we won't tell anyone but shouldn't you tell the Professor about this?" Rogue asked

"I'm gonna, just make sure no-one else finds out about this" he told them

"No offence Logan but I think you could do with keeping your students on a tighter leash" Fury said, smiling, he knew now his nephew couldn't have been sent to a better place

"Yea, so do I" Logan replied as he stomped up to the mansion, the three students trailing behind him

In the corridor outside her room X-23 paused, adjusted her hair, and proceeded downstairs, after all, she'd took on the best HYDRA had to offer, how hard could talking to a few mutants be?

In chapter 3 – X-23s attempts to make friends don't go too well, and her creator makes a house call

To be continued, please review while I keep looking for Deadpool, he's not with the Avengers and I think he's trying to hot wire the X-jet, again


	3. Claws for concern

As always, all my reviews are greately appreciated

**Deadpool: And nothing's changed from the last chapter, he still doesn't own anything in this here fic except his OCs**

Me: Aha! Got you (ties up Deadpool with special anti-teleporting rope), let's see you try and get away now

**Deadpool: Err, you might wanna rethink that one boss**

Me: Why? It's not like you did anything yuo shouldn't havbe before I caught you

**Deadpool: Yea,a bout that...**

Me: Oh, no, you didn't download Y2K inot Iron Mans armor again did you?

**Deadpool: Not exactly, think bigger, and bright green**

**Hulk: HULK _SMASH_ PUNY TELEPORTING MAN!!**

Me: WHAT DID YOU DO?

**Deadpool: I dyed his hair bright pink**

Me: YOU WHAT!?

**Deadpool: But he was just lying there all alseep, come on, it was perfect**

Me: Just shut up and teleport, I'll kill you later, slowly (both teleport away)

Chapter 3: Claws for concern

Clone walked down the corridor, stopping when she heard voices coming from Kitty and Rogues room, Kitty and Jubilee were trying to convince Rogue to take a quiz in one of their magazines. As X-23 walked in, no-one paid any attention to her. Unsure of what to do she walked over to where the girls were sitting on Kittys bed

"C'mon Rogue, it'll only take a minute" Kitty said

"I'm not taking one of those girly-girl quizzes, end of story" Rogue said, skulking out of the room, annoyed at their constant nagging

"What is the quiz about?" X-23 asked in her emotionless tone

"It's a compatibility quiz, to see what sort of guy's best for you" Kitty replied

"Sort of guy?"

"What guy you'd be best dating" Kitty told her

"Oh, may I see it?" X-23 asked, Kitty handed her the magazine. She picked up a pen and circled her answers for the questions in the quiz before handing it back to Kitty, who quickly checked through it to see what her result would be

"O.K, according to this your ideal type of guy likes metal music, plays an instrument, and is insightful and thoughtful" Kitty replied

"Is that good?"

"Depends, I think Rogue's got some metal CDs if you want to listen to them" Kitty said, standing up and going over to Rogues side of the room. As she did she accidentally knocked her dresser, causing her music box to open and start playing. As soon as she heard the music she reacted like had the last time she'd heard a music box play. She leapt from the bed, grabbed the box and hurled it to the ground, smashing it to pieces. Kitty turned around to see her beloved music box lying in pieces and X-23 glaring hatefully down at it, like it was responsible for some personal insult

"What the hell did you do that for?" she yelled, running over and picking up the pieces, hoping she could get it fixed, after a close inspection she realised it was beyond repair, having been smashed into firewood

"I…I" X-23 stuttered, unable to explain why she'd done it, not thinking Kitty would understand, and not fully understanding why she'd done it either

"Look, I don't know what they taught you in the test tube but in the real world you don't go round breaking peoples stuff" Jubilee said, leaping up form the bed and going over to stand face to face with X-23

"Jubilee, don't…" Kitty said, knowing there was probably a good reason she'd broke the box, with her past at HYDRA Kitty thought it was a miracle X-23 was able to act like a human at all

"It's not like anyone wants you here anyway, you're a weapon, all you can do is kill and destroy, so get lost, freak" Jubilee yelled. At the X-23s expression turned to one of anger and she extended her claws and swung at Jubilee, who closed her eyes. Kitty ran to stop them but saw she needn't bother, X-23s claws had stopped just in front of Jubilee's face, just.

"I'm sorry about your box" X-23 said before turning and leaving the room before either Jubilee or Kitty could say another word

Outside a taxicab pulled up in front of the Institute and a woman with blond hair and green eyes got out, she walked up to the door and knocked on it. Wolverine opened it and let her in

"He's…he's returned?" she asked

"Sure looks like it" he replied, standing aside and allowing her to come into the Institute

"So, what're you up to now? I hear SHEILD gave you amnesty in exchange for telling them everything you know about HYDRA?"

"Yes, is it true that she's here?" Dr Risman asked anxiously, scanning everyone who passed the two adults as they walked down the hallway, as if she expected X-23 to suddenly appear in front of her

"Yea she's around here somewhere, I could probably find her if you want to see her" Wolverine said

"No, after everything I've done, after my part in what HYDRA did to her, I don't deserve anything from her, let alone forgiveness" she told him as he opened a door and they walked inside Professor X's office. Professor X was sat in his chair with Storm, Beast and Scott also present

"This is Dr Deborah Risman, Doc, this is…"

"Charles Xavier, Scott Summers, Ororo Munroe and Hank McCoy, SHEILD's got files on all of you" she interrupted, Wolverine made a mental note to bring up harassment in his next conversation with Nick Fury

"It's a pleasure to meet you doctor, from what Logan has told me it seems we could have a little vampire problem soon" the Professor said to Dr Risman, trying his best to keep a unbiased opinion, he knew she was the main reason Wolverines clone was free but he also knew she was the one who'd created her, he felt the two things cancelled each other out. Just.

"Logan's filled us in on most of the details, I'm assuming crucifixes and holy water won't be much help" Storm said, trying to break the tension

"No, he isn't a vampire, he doesn't sleep in a coffin and he can get into someone's house quite easily if they don't invite him in. I've seen him fight when he was training X-23 a few times, she wouldn't be half the weapon if she'd been taught by anyone else" she said grimly

"She's a child, not a weapon" Wolverine snapped at the doctor, a little more harshly than necessary, he was used to hearing it from SHEILD members and government agents, not the person who'd helped X-23 gain her freedom

"Sorry, force of habit, I'm not really sure if I can help you, I worked in HYDRAs labs, not their sparring room" she told them

"Anything you can tell us would be a big help doctor Risman, maybe if we work together we can create a tranquilliser that can affect him" Beast said

"Perhaps, I'd be happy to do anything I can to help" she replied

"Very well, Beast, take Doctor Risman down to the underground level and get to work, Storm contact Archangel and see if your nephew is free to join us here, Logan and Scott, secure the mansion, above all we need to protect the students, all of them, not just X-23" the Professor told them, everyone immediately left the room, throwing themselves into preparations for the visitor they were likely to get in the next few hours

"It's an honour to be working with you Dr McCoy, I'm a big fan of your work" Dr Risman said to Beast as they headed down the corridor

"Oh…thank you" Beast replied, thankful she couldn't see him blushing under his fur as they passed two of the Wildcards in the hallway

"Who's she?" Bryce asked Holly, who shrugged

"Beasts me, but mister McCoy seems to like her" she replied

From one of the trees, hidden from view by the red leaves, the assassin watched the mansion, now a imposing silhouette against the angry grey clouds the filled the sky above and behind it, he was ready to attack them now but he decided to wait, a thunderstorm was due to hit in a few hours. And from experience he knew that revenge was a dish best served cold.

In chapter 4 – Hellblade finally makes his move and seems set on cutting a bloody path through the X-men to get to his target

(both teleport back in)

To be continued, all reviews are hapily accepted and greatly appreciated, and if I survive long enough to change my name and re-locate to nice and scenic Antartica, I'll see you all at the next chapter (both teleport away again)


	4. Bump in the night

Me: Well I'm back, good news is I managed to lose the Hulk in Antartica, and the even better news is I managed to get Deadpool frozen for good measure, these were his last words

**Deadpool: Kioyuki Oniga doesn't own the X-men, he does own the OCs in this fic. I leave everything to my little yellow boxes, go Dodgers, Tony Stark for President**

Me: The bad news is he didn't stay frozen

**Deadpool: Yo, I'm back, even got ya a present (holds out gift)**

Me: Wow, thanks (opens it), err Deadpool, this is Doctor Dooms mask

**Deadpool: Yea, and?**

Me: Well, isn't he going to be very ticked at whoever's stolen it?

**Deadpool: Hey, I aint the one holding it**

)Me: Here take it back (shoves box at Deadpool(

**Deadpool: Hey, you can't give back gifts**

Me: Screw the rules I have money

**Deadpool: Really?**

Me: Well I will once I kill you and collect the insurance

**Deadpool: Oh good point**

_**Dr Doom: WHO DARES STEAL FROM DOOM?!**_

Me: RUN!

Just time for my to thank all the people who've reviewed so far, I really appreciate it and it always helps when I'm writing an update

Chapter 4: Bump in the night

After several days of continuously cloudy sky, you didn't need to have Storms powers to know that it was going to rain. What no-one did know was what they'd expected to be a minor downpour become a typhoon in the space of a few minutes.

Rogue was sitting next to the window in her room, watching the water cascading down form the sky outside as Kitty phased in through the closed door

"Man, I'm glad I'm not out in that". At the same moment Kurt teleported in, dripping wet

"Man am I glad I'm out of the rain" he said, shaking like a dog to dry himself off, not realising he'd teleported into the wrong room. Then he looked around and saw a soaked Rogue and Kitty, neither looking very pleased

"Oh, I must be in the wrong room" he said sheepishly before quickly teleporting out of the room before either girl could get her hands on the blue elf.

Down in the lab Dr Risman and Beast could hear the pattering of the rain and the booming thunder in the sky above them, the vibrations making the test tubes and notebooks rattle on the units they were precariously balanced on. Deciding to ignore the distraction, the two scientists pressed on with their work

"You're really a big fan of my work? I didn't think it was so important" Beast said, checking a sample through the lens of a microscope

"Definitely, if it hadn't been for your thesis on cloning and duplicating genetic structures I wouldn't have been able to create her" Dr Risman replied, then realised Beast definitely wouldn't take what she'd just said as a compliment

"I mean, your thesis was invaluable, it also helped me develop some of the painkillers and drugs HYDRA used when she was put through the adamantium, she wouldn't have survived without them, you've helped her more than I did" she told him. He straightened up and looked directly at her

"You've helped set her free, helped to take down HYDRA, let her live a normal childhood, don't sell yourself short Doctor" he replied sincerely

"Actually it wasn't just me, Hellblade helped a lot as well, he really cared about her, always stood up for her whenever she failed or slipped up, he was always there for her as much as HYRDA let him, he treated her like a child long before I even thought about helping her escape" she said honestly, looking down at the floor

"He looked out for her? Then why's he after her now?" Beast asked, Logan hadn't told him or the X-men any of this

"Who knows, he was hired by HYDRA to train her, he's a mercenary first and foremost, maybe it's the money or he's just curious to see what effect all his training's had on her, seeing if his investment in her was a good choice of his time" she said

"Sometimes I wonder if she'll ever be free of her past" she said softly

"With you here to help, I know she will" Beast reassured her, their hands creeping closer and closer together….

When suddenly a damp blue elf appeared and landed right on top of them

"Oh man, I got it wrong again" Kurt groaned before vanishing as quickly as he'd arrived. Both doctos burst out laughing

"Is it always this crazy here?" Risman asked

"Pretty much, this is a slow day Dr Risman" he replied

"Please, call me Sarah" she said

"Only if you'll call me Hank" Beast replied

"O.K, Hank" she replied, both smiling at one another

As the stormy night grew from dark blue to pitch black visibility outside fell to almost nothing, the lightning that arched through the sky lighting up the storm wrecked grounds for a second, showing the massive puddles and casting the trees and statues into pools of dark shadows. If Rogue wasn't preoccupied with drying herself off from Kurt's sudden appearance she might have noticed a dark shape darting from statue to statue in the flashes of lightning, getting closer and closer to the grounds with every lightning bolt that illuminated the sky.

Up in their room on the second floor Bobby and Bryce were relaxing, trying to keep their minds of the storm raging outside. They were watching a horror movie to try and stave off the boredom of being confined to the Institute, it wasn't working.

"Man, don't they ever get it, going to the window's a bad idea" Bobby said as one of the characters went to the window, only to be grabbed by the monster, dragged outside, and brutally murdered.

"I think it's the main thing wrong with horror movies, they know it's a bad idea and they still go do it, you'd think they never watched horror movies in their world" Bryce said, shovelling popcorn into his mouth, as another flash of lighting lit up the sky Holly walked into the room

"What's up guys?" she asked, sitting down on the end of Bryce's bed and helping herself to popcorn

"The movies dullsville and I wish Storm would just get rid of this storm so we can get to sleep" Bryce told her, snatching the popcorn back from his teammate

"Yea tell me about it, it's like a typhoon out there" Bobby said, getting up and walking over to the window, opening it a crack to let some fresh air in without drowning them all in rainwater. At that moment two things happened at almost the exact same time. Someone in the movie screamed at the top of their lungs, making Bobby turn back around to look at the TV set.

A millisecond later, a pair of black gloved hands reached in under the window and shoved it upwards, hitting the top of its frame with a bang, as Bobby turned back around to the window all he saw was a black figure and a glinting object sailing through the air towards him. It buried itself in his shoulder and twisted around, making the ice mutant black out form the pain. As he slumped to the floor Holly screamed and Bryce leapt up from his bed, meaning to go to Bobby's aid. He managed to take one footstep forwards by the time Bobbys attacker had cleared the distance between them and was upon him. Bryce went to unwrap his hands but the figure clicked its fingers and Bryce blinked instinctively. When he'd opened his eyes he saw four faint red lines on his arms, just starting to drip blood, dumbfounded he looked up at the figure who twirled the glinting object around and slammed it into the back of his head, with a grunt he too dropped to the floor.

Holly instinctively turned around and made for the door only for the figure to turn and hurl the glinting object at her. It flew past her and struck the door, the force of the impact slamming it shut. When she looked at it she saw it was a scimitar, a curved Arabic sword, the point of which had buried itself in the door lock, sealing the only way out of the room. Too panicked to even think of using her mutant powers she grabbed the nearest thing she could, a long crucifix from the catholic mutants table and stood to face the figure.

It stepped forwards and she saw that it was in fact a he, a boy who looked a few years older than her, around 17 or 18, with long black hair tied in a ponytail, very dark eyes that seemed almost black and extremely pale skin, he was dressed in a black shirt and trousers with a long black cloak, which flapped in the wind from the open window and was holding another scimitar in his hand. He smiled for a second and she saw two fangs in his mouth. Strangely her first thought was if he'd been wearing normal clothes, he'd fit right in at the music store at the mall, maybe in the rock and metal section. Her second thought was he looked like he was right out of the vampire movie her two friends had been watching before this real life undead had showed up and taken them out

"Stay back!" she warned, brandishing the crucifix and waving it in front of her like a sword. The boy sighed, as if he'd gone through this many times before

"Do you really think that's going to help you?" he asked, not sounding sarcastic or mocking, but inquisitive and a little impatient, like he had some other place to be instead of dealing with her

He walked right towards her and she backed up as far as she could until she had her back pressed against the wall. The boy reached out and rested the tip of the scimitar against the sword, then flicked it around and neatly sliced off a small piece of the crucifix, he did it again, and again and again, until he'd cut the crucifix down until the hilt Holly was holding in her hand was all that was left

"A word of advice, if you have powers, use them next time" he told her before twirling the scimitar around and smacking her in the side of the head with the flat of the blade. As she slipped to the floor he darted forward and grabbed her. Lifting her up he carried her to the bed and placed her in it, moving the pillows to support her head and even tucked her in

"Pleasant dreams my lady" he whispered softly before dragging the emotionless forms of Bobby and Bryce out of sight.

He walked over to retrieve his other scimitar form the door, set the TV to stand by, switched off the light and left the room, walking cautiously down the hallway, in search of his target, and the one he so desperately wanted revenge against

In the next chapter – As Hellblade makes his way through the mansion Logan and the senior X-men realise they're under attack But is it too late for one southern belle?

To be conutinued please review, if I survive Dooms wrath I'll see you at the next chaper, and away I go...


	5. Fallen Rogue

First, a big thank you to everyone who took the time to review, I really appreciate it

Sorry for the late reply, I've been pretty busy and a bout of writers block didn't help either

**Deadpool: Yea, slacker**

Me: Hey, I had a hard time avoding Doom after you stole his mask (whacks Deadpool with broom)

**Deadpool: Well, that was nothing compared to my next heist, I'm gonna steal Spidermans web shooters**

Me: No you're not (handcuffs Deadpool)

**Deadpool: You really think this's gonna hold me?**

Me: Yep, especially since I lost the key for those

**Deadpool: Damm you**

Me: Now earn your keep or no yellow boxes for a month

**Deadpool: Fine, Kioyuki Oniga doesn't own the X-men or anyone in this fic except his OCs**

Me: Much better, enjoy folks

Chapter Five: Fallen Rogue

After leaving the room Hellblade crept down the dark hallways of the mansion with great care, making sure no-one in the rooms he past noticed him, his goal was to get X-23 and turn her over to HYDRA, not wipe out the X-men, his revenge was important but that could wait, the mission came first

As he walked past the lounge he could hear a group of mutants laughing and joking, enjoying themselves despite the miserable day and the recent tragedy with Alex Summers. Despite knowing he needed to move on he paused outside the room, the laughs and happiness reminding of a time long ago when he'd been just like them, happy and carefree. Remembering where he was he reminded himself that those days were over and standing outside a room of hostile mutants in the middle of a thunderstorm wasn't going to help him achieve his assignment. He regained his composure and resumed walking, he'd paused outside the room for only a few seconds, far too long. The door opened and Foresight walked out

"Ragoul? Is that you?" she asked. The vampire cursed under his breath, he knew he'd have to act quickly or he'd have the whole Institute bearing down on him

"Yes it's me" he replied, hoping his normal accent was similar to Ragoul's, whoever he was

"You decided to come down? I thought you were scared of thunderstorms?" she asked, not sounding the least bit suspicious, Hellblade risked a glance over his shoulder and saw the girls dark glasses and smiled, she had no way of seeing that he wasn't Ragoul, now he just needed to fool her other remaining senses

"Oh, I decided not to waste the night up in my room, have you seen X-23, Logan asked me to pass on a message to her?" he asked, praying she wouldn't find him out

"The new girl? I think she's in her room, she's been pretty upset since what happened earlier with Kitty and Rogue" Foresight told him

"What happened? What did they do?" he asked demandingly

"I don't know but she seemed pretty shook up, and Kitty told me X-23 broke her. How come you're so worked up about it? You've only met X-23 today" she asked

"I don't like it when people get hurt for something that's not their fault. And it wasn't her fault" Hellblade replied abruptly, remembering what happened years ago with another music box before turning back around and striding away down the corridor

Foresight was so surprised by 'Ragoul's' reaction that she forgot about getting her soda and went back inside the lounge

"What's up? You seem pretty shook up" Katie asked from her seat on the couch

"Ragoul appears to be very fired up about what happened between Shadowcat, Rogue and X-23" she told her team-mate as she closed the door to keep the heat in. El Ninio and Task Force X (aside from Drac) were in the lounge with Kitty and Rogue, enjoying the light and warmth from the roaring fire in the fireplace, courtesy of Solaris

"What's to be so uptight about? She broke the box, it was an accident, wasn't her fault or anything" Rogue said, drying herself in front of the fire along with Kitty

"That's what Ragoul said" Foresight replied, retaking her seat and remembering the soda she'd gone to get before she met Ragoul

"Wait, how did Drac know that? We never told anyone about it aside from you" Kitty asked, growing very suspicious

"How did I know what?" the real Drac asked, appearing from the door on the far side of the lounge

"How did you get there? Even with your mutant powers you couldn't have gotten to that door from the other one that fast" Foresight demanded, realising something was very wrong

"What d'you mean? I just came down from my room, ask Kevin" he said as the Corsair member appeared behind him, who nodded in agreement

"Wait, if you're there then who was…" she started before she suddenly had a vision

_Start vision_

"_Nothing personal Marie, this is just business" the vampire said as he stuck his scimitar through Rogues throat and out the other side_

"And I'm sure Logan will be as cut up about this as you are" he added, pulling the blade out and Rogue fell to the floor, her neck wound gushing blood

End vision 

"Oh no…" Foresight whispered

"What was it? Did you have a vision?" Rogue demanded, Foresight turned to look directly at her and Rogue didn't like the look in her eye, is was like she was looking at someone who was already dead

"X-23s in trouble, we've got to help her" Foresight said

"O.K, Dana you go find Storm and Logan, tell them what's happening, Drac you and Kevin go tell Beast, Solaris you and me will…" Rogue ordered before Foresight cut her off

"No, you _**need**_to stay here" she said, stressing the 'need' as much as she could, hoping Rogue would get the message

"What? Why? I wanna help and y'all aint exactly rolling in combat experience here" she asked

"Just trust me, you need to stay here" Foresight said

"But…"

"Just go with it Rogue, she's the precog so she's probably got a good reason" Kitty assured her, Rogue shrugged and sat back down

"Fine but you should get Kurt, he'd be pretty useful against that vampire guy" Rogue told her, the look Katie gave her made her realise what had just slipped out

"Vampire guy?" Zander asked

"Forget it, she's probably thinking of a movie she saw or something, now come on we need to get going" Katie quickly said before anyone else could ask anymore questions. As the mutants filed out Rogue remained in her seat

"There's a good reason, there's gotta be a good reason, I'm sure it's something pretty important so I really need to…aw the hell with it, how bad can it be?" she said to herself, standing up and running after the others, hoping she could catch up to them before they met Hellblade

Two floors above the Cajun belle Hellblade had reached the wing where the girl's bedrooms were. Glancing from one door to another he scanned the names engraved on them, looking for one with X-23s name on it. As he neared the end of the hallway he started to get desperate, he'd assumed they'd have put her name as X-23, if the clone had changed her old handle from her HYDRA days or they hadn't put it up yet, he was in big trouble. He decided to use a toy HYDRA had given and pulled out a small handheld monitor

"Now if Lady Hydra was right this can detect adamantium, let's see if her research team are as good as she says they are" he muttered to himself, turning back around and walking back up the hallway in the direction of the strongest signal nearby, the beeps from the device getting closer and closer together the closer he got. He came to a stop outside a room with the names _Rogue_ and _Kitty_ engraved on a small brass tag near the top of the door.

From what Foresight had told him he knew this was probably the last place X-23 would be but he decided to trust the handheld and tried the door handle. It turned easily at his touch and the door swung open. Upon crossing the threshold he quickly saw there was no-one there but the signal still got louder, he went further into the darkened room and the beeps got closer and closer and louder and louder. He reached the point where he was almost on top of the signal and bent down to get a better look. In the half-light he saw the smashed remains of Kitty's musicbox. He cursed loudly, the signal must have been from the minute traces of adamantium left behind in the box when X-23 broke it. His enhanced hearing picked up the sound of many footsteps rapidly approaching

"Looking for something?" a voice asked from behind him, sighing he stood up and turned around to see Kitty standing in the doorway, the other X-men behind her

"I do not have the time nor the desire to fight you. Walk away and no harm shall befall you this night, you have my word" he told her. Kitty was surprised at how honest and sincere he sounded

"Sorry but when you mess with one X-men, you mess with all the X-men" Kitty said as Kurt teleported in behind him. The elf grabbed hold of one of Hellblade's scimitars and started to draw it out of the scabbard, it hadn't gone halfway out before the vampire grabbed the hilt and squeezed. Kurt let out a cry of pain as his three delicate fingers buckled and snapped under the force bearing down on them. Hellblade grabbed Kurt's other arm and brought his head down in a vicious head butt, Kurt's nose broke and gushed blood as the blue mutant fell backwards. Hellblade grabbed a nearby box of tissues and dropped a wad of them onto Kurt's chest, who grabbed for them clumsily with his good hand and pressed them to his broken nose

"As I told you, I have no desire to fight you, now run along little mutants before someone else gets hurt" he told them

"Not a chance, you're not getting out of here while we're here to stop you" Kitty told him as the X-men ploughed forwards

"As you wish" Hellblade said softly.

As the X-men rushed forwards none of them had seen what the assassin had, in an open space they'd have been able to swarm him with no problem, but too many tried to squeeze through the narrow doorframe at the same time and they got in each others way, resulting in a crash and Dana, Zander and Foresight lying in a heap on the floor.

Kitty managed to phase most of the others through and Katie rushed past the fallen mutants in her mist form. She reached Hellblade first and turned solid, delivering a sharp kick to the back of his knee, turning back into mist again as he slashed his scimitar at her. He glanced over his shoulder and saw Zander struggling to his feet, smiling he pivoted away from Katie, coming within range of Zander who instinctively hurled a blast of wind the vampires way, only for him to leap to one side and the blast catching Katie, before she could turn solid she was lifted up and blown out of the open window, quickly carried further away from the action by the howling winds outside

With one out of the way two more bore down upon Hellblade, Sarin with his fists wrapped in white fire and Dana, making full use of her superspeed.

"You fight well but your other power would have been a better choice miss Hush" Hellblade said before flicking his scimitar around, pulling one of her legs up from under her and sending Murmur crashing into Solaris who immediately put up his hands to catch her, forgetting that they were still covered in white fire. Murmur let out a scream as the flames bit into her clothes and flesh and she immediately pushed herself to the floor, rolling around to put out the fire

"Oh my god Dana I'm sorry" Solaris yelled, forgetting who he was fighting, his friends safety now is primary concern. Hellblade quickly showed him the error of his choice his blades flashed through the air and Solaris dropped to the floor, bleeding from dozens of shallow cuts

His gaze then fell on Shadowcat and she immediately went out of phase

"Here, catch" he called, grabbing the wounded Dana and throwing her to Kitty with as much ease someone would throw a frisbee. Kitty immediately turned solid again to catch Dana and then felt a sharp pain as Hellblade's scimitar ripped through the tendons of her left leg, her strength gave out and she dropped to the floor, both her and Dana landing on Foresight and Zander, both still struggling to stand, having been at the bottom of the pile when they'd all fallen over

"How did you do that?" Kitty asked, struggling to rise to kneeling position, instantly knowing her left leg couldn't support her anymore

"It was simple really, you have incredible power, but you haven't got a clue how to work together as a team, as soon as you see one of your own in danger you lose you heads and fight on your own terms, anyone could defeat a team like that" he said

"We'll stop you, count on it" Kitty said defiantly, trying to stand but falling back down again

"At least you still have spirit, now if you'll excuse me I have an assignment to complete" he told her before hi eyes rolled in his head and he slumped to his knees

"Sorry darlin, but you aint ya forgetting someone?" Rogue asked, smiling a fanged smile as her newest set of powers mannifested

"Rogue?" Kitty cried out, never more happier to see her friend

"Sorry but you know me, I never miss a party" she said before letting out a chocked gasp

"Nothing personal Marie, this is just business" the vampire said as he stuck his scimitar through Rogues throat and out the other side

"And I'm sure Logan will be as cut up about this as you are" he added, pulling the blade out and Rogue fell to the floor, her the wound in her neck gushing blood

Down on the floor Foresights milky eyes widened in horror as she heard the vampires words, her vision had come true

In the next chapter – Wolverine catches up to the vampire, and his past catches up to him

To be continued, all reviews and constructive criticism are welcomed and appreciated


	6. Thanks for the memories

Thanks to everyone who's reviewed so far, take it away Deadpool

**Deadpool: Yea, in case you haven't guessed already Kioyuki Oniga doesn't own the X-men, but he does own the OCs in his fics, poor guys**

Chapter six: Thanks for the memories

The other mutants watched on as their fellow X-man weakly clutched at her neck, trying to stem the flow of blood from her wound. Hellblade's eyes softened and he knelt down and reached his hand into his cloak

"Keeb away frob her" Kurt gurgled, his broken nose not helping his speech very much

Hellblade ignored Rogues brother and pulled out a gauze pad and pressed it to Rogues neck, placing her hand on it

"Hold this as tightly as you can, it will slow the blood loss, do you understand?" he tasked her, she nodded in reply, her expression a combination of pain, shock and surprise

"Why're you helping her?" Kitty asked, trying to stand again and failing

"I may be an assassin but I do not kill unless I am hired to" he replied before standing up and walking out of the room, Kitty lunged at him and he calmly drew one of his scimitars and slashed at her, she fell backwards, a long cut down her left arm, another limb had had all of its tendons severed

"But that does not mean I will not kill you if you continue to get in my way" he said coldly before turning around and walking away down the hallway

"Well, thab was sbrange" Kurt mumbled, teleporting over to Kitty. They heard a painful moan and both of them looked around to see Rogue sitting upright, pulling at the gauze, now stuck to her neck by dried blood

"Man, that really hurt, he might have missed all the important stuff but it still hurts like hell" she said, removing the gauze, beneath it there wasn't even a scar

"What do you mean he missed?" Kitty asked

"Like I said, he missed everything, my spine, all the important stuff, everything that would've killed me if he'd hit it, it's like he missed on purpose" she said, leaning on the wall for support as she stood up and swayed on her feet

"How dib you heal so fasb?" Kurt blurted, feeling his broken nose starting to swell up and turn a nasty purple colour, Rogue opened her moth so all the mutants could see her fangs

"I got his powers when I touched him, he heals fast, as fast as Wolverine, maybe even faster" she said, sounding stronger and stronger by the minute. She looked around the room, Solaris was helping Dana, Foresight and Stormcaller were both out cold and Katie was still being blown around outside by the storm

"Can you walk?" she asked Kitty

"No, he cut my tendons, I can't use my leg" Kitty said, looking down at the deep cut on her damaged limb

"Any chance you can still teleport Kurt?" she asked her adoptive brother, aside from his broken nose and his broken hand he wasn't that badly hurt

"I thinb I'll be able to manabe one trip" he told her

"Good, as long as I've got his powers I might as well do something with them. Can you teleport me to outside Logans room?" his sister asked Kurt, who nodded

"Yea, but why b'you want to go there?"

"I didn't just get his powers, I got his memories, Wolverine's gonna need all the back up he can get" Rogue said grimly, Kurt grabbed hold of his sister and they both vanished in a puff of smoke

"Why do you have to be so stubborn?" Hellblade asked, stepping over the bodies of Beserker, Kendra and Illustrati. Kendra had a nasty bruise on the side of her head, Illustrati's hands were broken and Beserkers body was covered in shallow cuts, all contributing to the growing pool of blood around the fallen mutant

The vampire continued on his way when he heard someone closing in on him, he spun back around, scimitars drawn to see Doug Ramsey

"Leave, now" he commanded, sounding a lot braver than he normally was

"And what will you do if I don't?" Hellblade replied, sounding more bored than anything else

"I'll strike you down with these!" he roared, brandishing a gold crucifix and a clove of garlic on one hand and a bottle of holy water in the other. Hellblade sighed and clicked his fingers, Doug blinked and when he'd opened his eyes again the garlic, crucifix and holy water were now in Hellblade's hands

"This is why I find children so amusing, they think things like this can actually harm me" he said, he crushed the Crucifix into a ball, ate the clove of garlic in one bite, then washed it down with the holy water

"You see, I'm still here" he said, drying his mouth on a handkerchief he'd pulled from the inside pocket of his shirt

"I…I've still got my powers" Doug said, standing firm. Hellblade easily saw through the bluff

"I've read your SHEILD file mister Ramsey, unless you plan on talking me into submission in ten different languages there is nothing you can possibly do to stop me that won't result in you joining your friends" he spoke coldly, pointing the tip of a scimitar at Beserker, Illustrati and Kendra. He didn't mean to be so harsh but they needed medical attention and he didn't have time to get it for them

" Instead you can make yourself useful by getting your friends to the infirmary, I have no business with them or you so unless you want them to die you' better get going" he told Doug, who realised the vampire had a point and immediately hoisted Beserker onto his shoulders and started back down the hallway, heading for the infirmary in the basement. Satisfied they'd be O.K, HYDRAs assassin continued on in his search

Wolverine and Storm raced through the dark hallways of the mansion, heading for X-23s room, hoping the vampire didn't get there first

"Logan, do you know this assassin?" Storm asked, flying up near the ceiling, keeping pace with Wolverine

"Maybe, I'm not sure, my memory's not exactly photographic" he told her as they passed Doug, not noticing he was carrying a bloodstained Beserker on his back

"Well if you do, I hope you know some way of defeating him" she said quietly, more to herself than to Wolverine

Rogue and Kurt appeared outside Logan's room and Kurt let out a groan and slumped to the ground, exhausted and worn down by the pain

"Logan? You in?" she asked, knocking on the door, with the enhanced senses she'd taken from Hellblade she could tell the room was empty and immediately set off down the hallway to X-23s room, joining the race to reach the clone

Wolverine and Storm rounded the last corner and got the first clear look at the hallway where X-23s room was. Halfway down the hallway was a figure dressed in black peering at a name-tag on the door in front of him.

"Hey fangs, ya got the wrong door" Wolverine called out, the figure immediately snapped his head around to look directly at Wolverine. Hellblade's features had completely changed, instead of the calm collected, slightly concerned expression there was only a seething pit of rage over darkened and glaring eyes

"I know it's not part of my mission but I don't think HYDRA will mind if I take my revenge on you before I get X-23 for them" he spat out, his voice filled with as much venom and hatred as his eyes.

"Revenge? What'd I do to you bub?" Wolverine asked. Hellblade clicked his fingers, Wolverine blinked on impulse and when he opened them Hellblade was upon him, both scimitars drawn. He plunged both of them into Wolverine's chest, through his ribcage and cleaved right through his spinal column.

"_Sergant, this is Mister…well says here his name's Hellblade, whatever, just assigned to your squad" a Lieutenant said as the vampire stood in front of him in the army barracks, dressed in almost the exact same attire he wore when the would meet decades later_

"_It's a pleasure to meet you" Captain America said, saluting sharply, followed by Logan, whose salute was more relaxed. Hellblade bowed_

"Likewise" 

Wolverine barely had time to extend his claws before Hellblade pulled the blades out and drove them in again, this time shearing a big chunk of flesh off Wolverine's arm, the slivery adamantium gleaming in the light from a flash of lightning before blood filled the wound, sealing the metal off from the outside world once again and the flesh was already starting to grow back.

"_How'd you get so good? For someone so good you don't look any older than the new draftees" Logan said after Hellblade had beaten him in hand to hand training, yet again_

"Lots of practice" the vampire replied pulling him to his feet 

Hellblade plunged the blades in a third time, opening up Wolverines stomach from one side to the other, ripping the blades out in a gush of blood

"_O.K, that's the briefing done, any questions before we ship out?" Captain America asked_

"_Do not worry Captain Rogers, I will not let you down" Hellblade said with his usual formality_

"Yea, relax Cap, me and the vamp here've got this in the bag" Logan said, clapping the vampire on the back, Hellblade looked uncomfortable but smiled, more honestly and happily than anyone in the squad had ever seen him look

Wolverine sank to his knees, his healing nearing it's limits as Hellblade raised the scimitars above his head, intending to end the battle with one strike. As the blades descended through the air towards the wounded, bloodied Wolverine the crackled with electricity and the vampire was lifted up off his feet and thrown backwards, slamming into the wall with a crash, he slid to the floor, his hands burned and blistered form the lightning thrown at him as Storm floated in front of Wolverine

"I don't know what business you have with Logan but I won't allow you to harm him" Storm said commandingly. Hellblade rose to his feet

"Normally I'd hold you back, you don't know what this…man has put me through, but I'm not in a very forgiving mood at the moment, and your little light show hasn't helped your case much" he told her, lunging forwards at the African weather witch.

"He clicked his fingers, hoping to end it quickly but Storm didn't blink, summoned a tornado and blasted him backwards with a burst of wind. As he was pushed back he sent the scimitar in his right hand flying at Storm, and she pivoted gracefully out of its way

"You missed" she called out triumphantly. He just smiled and pointed up. His other scimitar was embedded in the ceiling, which was crisscrossed with dozens of cuts and deep scratches. She realised what he'd done, he'd used her own whirlwind against her, letting her throw his blade around, cutting and weakening the ceiling, which was starting to give way as her mini tornado pushed and pulled at it.

The ceiling tiles, the plaster and a huge chunk of the ceiling broke off, splitting into a massive cloud that dropped down onto Storm, burying her under plasterboard, bricks, mortar and ceiling tiles. A thin trickle of blood ran out from the bottom of the pile

"Get me out…can't breathe…can't breathe…too small…need air…not enough…get me out...GET ME OUT!" Storm screamed, lost in her terror and fear, the sound of her cries for help and desperate pleas could be heard from inside the tonnes of rubble piled on top of her

"Now, where were we?" Hellblade asked Wolverine, advancing towards Weapon X, wiping the blood off his blades on a nearby curtain. As he raised the swords once more the door a few feet down the hall from them was kicked down and a figure somersaulted through the air to land in-between Wolverine and the vampire

"Get out of here kid" Wolverine said, gasping in pain as his healing factor struggled to repair the damage. Hellblade had really hit him where it hurt, like he knew he couldn't kill him, so he'd incapacitated him instead

"No chance" X-23 replied

"You are brave, girl, leaving the safety of your room to face me one on one" Hellblade said, assuming a fighting stance

"You want to give me to HYDRA, well here I am. Come and get me" she said bravely, extending her claws. Hellblade smiled

"As you wish, Laura"

In the next chapter – Hellblade and X-23 go at it head on, Logan's memory continues to improve, and HYDRA crashes the party

To be continued, as always, all reviews (and constructive criticism) are accepted and appreciated


	7. The Weapon and the Vampire

As always, thanks everyone who's reviewed so far, they were a big encouragement

Nothing's changed, I still don't own X-men: Evolution, and I reckon I never will

Chapter Seven: The weapon and the vampire

As the clone braced for Hellblade's attack she assumed her standard fighting stance until she noticed he wasn't moving, he wanted her to make the first move.

Not wanting to disappoint him she threw caution to the wind and went on the offensive, running low down to the ground, her claws pressed to her chest, waiting to drive them into her former trainer and mentor As she drew up to him she threw herself to one side, bringing her claws out, intending to slice them through his chest.

Hellblade scowled and clubbed the claws aside with the flat of a scimitar, then brought the other one around, nicking her neck, only drawing a thin trickle of blood as X-23 sailed by him

"Come on X-23, you can do better than that, I know you can" he snapped, not mockingly but as if he was genuinely angry that she wasn't fighting at her best

"So can you, don't hold back" she replied

"I won't if you won't" he told her, twirling his scimitars around in his hands as Rogue appeared round the corner and saw X-23 and Hellblade circling each other

"Hold on X, let me…"

"NO STAY OUT OF THIS!" X-23, Wolverine and Hellblade yelled in unison at the southern belle

"What? Are y'all crazy? If I help we can take him down right now" Rogue asked

"Don't, this is between them kid, I don't think she'll ever forgive you if you get involved" Wolverine said as Rogue lifted him up to his feet and supported him

"Wow, he sure did a number on you" she told him, looking down at his injuries, which still hadn't healed

"Yea, I hadn't noticed" he muttered, pressing a hand over the gaping wound his stomach, it had stopped bleeding, which was good since he was starting to feel light-headed, but it still hadn't even started to close

"I'd give you a hand with that but my new powers aren't exactly the healing type" Rogue said, her new fangs glinting in her mouth as she spoke and watched the fight. Both X-23 and Hellblade were fighting at a lightning pace, little more than a blur of glinting metal and blades that moved too fast for even her borrowed improved senses to fully see, both of them were operating on little more than instinct and pure skill

X-23 ducked out of a swing and slashed with her claws, opening a long wound down Hellblade's left arm

"Impressive, you're just as good as I remember" he told her. Then a similar wound appeared on her right arm

"But there's still some room for improvement" he added, blocking X-23s lunge with his scimitars and pushing back, forcing her backwards.

X-23 back flipped to land a few meters away, composed herself, then lunged at Hellblade again, bringing her claws down, intending to open the vampires stomach. Hellblade raised his left scimitar to block the blow and her claws connected with the blade with only the tiniest amount of force. Then she grinned and pushed out, forcing her mentors blade down to the side, dragging her left foot blade down through the tendons on the vampires other arm, his other sword slipped out and fell with a clatter to the floor.

"Not bad, you're still able to think outside the box" he noted before kicking out, driving his right foot into the soft flesh of her stomach, driving the wind out of the clone, in a heartbeat he brought his left scimitar up and through the tendons, muscle, arteries and windpipe of her throat.

X-23 let out a gurgle and dropped to her knees, both hands pressed to her neck to stem the flow of blood form her wound while Hellblade calmly sheathed the scimitar, picked up his other one and put that away too

"Looks like my trademark move can still catch you out X-23. In case you forgot you need to apply constant pressure to that wound or you'll bleed to death in seconds, well, given your healing factor it's probably minutes in your case. That should keep you occupied while I get you to HYDRAs drop off point" he told her triumphantly, sounding a little disappointed as he reached down, holding out a hand to the clone, who looked at something over Hellblade's shoulder, both hands still clasped to her neck.

Hellblade's eyes narrowed when he realised what she was looking at, then widened again in pain as blue lightning arched and crackled around his body. They slid shut, but he forced them open again only to get another shock. The blue lightning kept appearing as he forced himself to stand every time after it had knocked him to the floor. He looked down and saw a three-pronged titanium dart sticking out of his side, he reached down to pull it out when a voice made him stop

"I wouldn't do that I were you, that dart's set to deliver a two hundred thousand volt charge if anyone messes with it" Beast said

"This won't kill me" Hellblade snarled through gritted teeth, he tried to rise again but his body was racked by the massive voltage and he dropped to the floor again

"Yes but it hurts like hell doesn't it? We can't kill you but we can certainly hurt you" Beast told the vampire, his hand hovering above a handheld controller, ready to increase the voltage in the dart in case Hellblade didn't get the message. Luckily for the vampire he had. But it didn't matter

"You think this will stop me? You're very mistaken Doctor McCoy. As soon as I pull this out I'll kill all of you and paint the walls of this house red with your blood" he hissed, reaching down to tug at the dart, biting down on his lip to try and block the pain, he let out a muffled cry of pain and blood trickled down his chin and onto his shirt from his cut lip. Undeterred he reached down to pull at the dart again

"Hellblade don't" Dr Risman called out. He looked up at her

"S…Sarah?" he asked with surprising softness, his eyes wide with surprise

"Don't, please, just let X-23 go. She's been through enough, you of all people should know that" she pleaded, from the look in the assassins eyes she knew she was starting to get through to him

At that moment the windows in the hallway behind them shattered and a dozen men in black uniforms swung through on ropes. Logan snarled in anger as he saw HYDRAs insignia on their sleeves.

The man acted with cold efficiency, training their weapons on Rogue they opened fire and she fell backwards, blood dripping from a dozen wounds in her chest, her fangs showing as she opened her moth to gulp in air through her punctured lungs.

They then turned on Logan, placing a bullet through his temple as he, still healing from Hellblade's wounds, tried to rise to fight them. They moved down the hall, kicking every door down and tossing in a grenade, making sure no-one else nearby would rush to intervene.

As X-23 extended her claws and rushed at the nearest HYDRA operative a net shot through the shattered window and enveloped her. She cried with pain as blue lightning danced over the nets metal threads and she slumped to the floor in front of the window.

"Too easy" a cold voice cackled as three figures jumped through the window. From the whirling sounds it was obvious a helicopter was hovering right outside. Wolverine recovered form his bullet wound in time to see the three and know who they were.

"Gauntlet, Omega Red, I should've known HYDRA'd send you two" he snarled

"Calm yourself Weapon X. We're here for your progeny, not you, this time" Omega Red said, walking over to where X-23 was lying and hoisted her onto his shoulder

"Why are you here? I had everything under control" Hellblade demanded, pushing himself up on his hands. The third figure let out a cold, cruel, feminine laugh

"You were taking too long so we decided to just step in and grab the weapon ourselves"

"SHE'S A CHILD!" Hellblade yelled, realising how he'd been betrayed

"I really don't care, she's our weapon now. And thank you so much for helping us get her back" Lady Hydra told him, turning and walking away

"Why can't you just leave her alone!" Dr Risman screamed, throwing herself at the three terrorists, a shard of glass form the window clutched in her hand. Lady Hydra calmly spun around, pulled a pistol form its holster on her left leg and fired, the doctor fell backwards, blood ebbing from a coin sized hole on the left side of her chest

"Don't worry, you'll still get your fee, plus a nice six figure bonus for helping us get rid of this traitor. We hope to work with you again in the future. And have a pleasant evening" Lady Hydra told Hellblade, waving mockingly before the three climbed back on board the helicopter, which took off, disappearing from sight into the roaring storm.

Hellblade leapt to his feet and ran to the fallen Dr Risman, ignoring the shock from the dart. He reached her and sank to his knees, grasping her hand as she held it up

"Sarah…I…I never knew any of this would happen" he said dully, unable to believe how easily he'd been tricked

"It's O.K, I don't blame you, you're an assassin, you always told me that, personal concerns never affect an assignment, remember?" she asked

"Is there anything I can do that can make this right?" he asked her, leaning in closer to her face

"Save her...you're the only one who can" she told him, her voice barely above a whisper before letting out a gentle sigh, closing her eyes and going perfectly still.

Hellblade let out a scream in an incomprehensible language and the dart gave him another immense electrical shock. This time he couldn't handle the pain and fell backwards into a growing pool of water from the shattered window, out cold, at last.

An hour later…

Wolverine looked as Dr Risman's body was wheeled past him by a forlorn Beast. Rogue was standing nearby, Hellblade's healing powers having fixed the damage from HYDRAs bullets. Storm, Kitty and the others Hellblade had attacked were in the infirmary and the assassin himself was still in the pool of water, no-one had gone near him in case he was just pretending to be unconscious.

"How did all of this happen?" Archangel asked, who'd arrived with the Professor, Evan and Cyclops just after HYDRA had escaped

"We weren't prepared, at least, not enough" he replied, all that he needed to say

"How do we get X-23 back? We don't even know where HYDRA took her" Rogue asked Wolverine. He looked down at Hellblade

"Don't worry, we've got that covered"

In the next chapter – Hellblade tells the X-men his story, but will Wolverine like what he's going to hear? And just how is he connected to HYDRA and X-23?

To be continued, like before, all reviews and constructive criticism are happily accepted and greately appreciated


	8. Interrogation of a vampire

First, I'd like to say thanks to all the people who the time to reiew my fic,** freegirl**, **Morgomir**, **ZWig** and **X00001**, I really appreciate the encouragment, thanks guys

Disclaimer: I own nothing, especially not X-men: Evolution, no wait, scratch that, I own all my OCs

Chapter 8: Interrogation of a vampire

The room around him swam into focus as Hellblade opened his eyes and sat up. He looked around, his skills snapping him back into focus, scanning his surroundings and reaching down to his sword belt to check his scimitars. His hand couldn't reach down that far and he saw a thick metal cuff on his wrist, attached to it was a thick, heavy chain, which was driven into the cold, metal floor with a large metal peg. He tugged weakly at it and realised it wasn't steel like he'd thought, by titanium, whoever had chained him up wasn't taking any chances

As his vision cleared he saw his weapons were missing and where he'd been chained up. He was in a small cell, 6ft by 8ft, all the walls, floor and ceiling were made of the same cold, unforgiving steel. From the X-symbol that was plastered across every wall, the floor, door and ceiling he guessed he was still at the Xavier Institute, and not at SHEILD, yet.

As the vampire explored his cell to the limits of what his shackles would allow, a small camera set in a corner of the cell relayed images back to the monitoring room further down the hallway. Professor X, Wolverine and Archangel sat in front of the monitors, observing him.

"He seems surprisingly calm for someone who just found out they've been chained up" Archangel noted

"Yea, too calm" Wolverine growled, the bandages around his chest and arms showing he still wasn't fully healed from his fight with the vampire.

"I must say his medical scan was unusual" the Professor noted, skimming through the file beast had given him

"How so?" Archangel asked

"He has one of the most powerful healing abilities I've never seen, it's as strong as yours if not stronger, and his DNA seems to be loosely formed" he said, noticing the strange look Wolverine and Archangel were giving him he continued

"It's as if it's meant to separate and re-form, I wouldn't be surprised if he can shape shift to some degree"

"Just great, instead of an invincible assassin, we've got a shape shifting invincible assassin" Wolverine growled, wishing he'd killed him when he'd had the chance

"I wouldn't say that, Beast said his blood seems to break down in the presence of silver nitrate. Or at least his healing powers don't work while it's present"

"What?"

"Silver Logan, it can't heal when it's in contact with silver" Archangel said, filling him in

"Well it's a start, why didn't you just read his mind and find that out Charles?" Wolverine asked, the Professor looked very unnerved as he responded

"I tried but it was like his mind shut down, it shattered into tiny fragments and fled into his subconscious, there wasn't a mind to read, it must be his species defence mechanism"

"Species? You mean he's not a mutant?" Archangel asked

"I'm not sure. And neither is Beast. He checked him for an X-gene and there wasn't one, he's not a mutant, he's something else entirely" the Professor replied

"What, like an alien?" Wolverine said sarcastically

"Maybe he really is a vampire" Archangel thought out loud. Silence descended and it remained until the door opened and Rogue walked in

"How's things upstairs?" Wolverine asked her

"Storm's still in the infirmary, Kurt's been patched up and Kitty's gonna be fine after Warren's blood transfusion" she replied, glancing at Archangel, than at the screen in front of the mutants

"You gonna interrogate him soon?" she asked

"We were just about to" the Professor told her

"Can I help? I mean, I got his memories when I took his powers, I'll know if he's lying when you ask him stuff" she said

"I think that might be a good idea, just don't get too close, we don't know if he's got any other surprises" the Professor told her as they left the room and headed for the vampires cell

The door slid open and the mutants found Hellblade sitting cross-legged on the floor as if he'd been waiting for them

"O.K fangs, we've got questions and you'd better have answers or you won't like what happens next" Wolverine snarled, extending his claws. Hellblade sighed and gripped both lengths of the chain linking his cuffs

"You know…" he started, tightening his grip and pulling sharply. The titanium chain groaned and snapped, he pulled one length of chain free and threw it away then grabbed the other length and held it in his hands as he sprung up, rushed forwards, grabbed Rogues arm in a vicelike grip and pulled her back to where he was standing

"…you might get farther in interrogations if you're polite to your prisoners" he finished, placing the length of chain around Rogues neck like a noose and starting to tighten it. Rogues eyes widened in fear and shock before Hellblade smiled at her, loosened the chain and gently pushed her back to the other X-men

"O.K O.K, you've proved your point" Wolverine said

"Much better" Hellblade replied, tearing the shackles off his wrists before sitting back down cross-legged on the floor of the cell

"You have questions, so ask away. I give you my word I will answer truthfully" he said, sounding sincere

"D'you mind if I do the asking chuck?" Wolverine asked the Professor

"Not at all" he replied, leaning back in his wheelchair, he was surprised by the level of kindness and honour Hellblade had, he was defiantly a strange assassin

"O.K, first, how do you know the kid?" Wolverine asked. Hellblade took a deep breath as he answered

"When her…temperament started to affect her development HYDRA realised no-one in their organization was qualified to deal with her anymore, they needed outside help so I was contracted in to supervise her training. Twenty million dollars per year plus expenses, it was hardly something I was going to say no to"

"Second, how come you know her so well? You two seem pretty close" Hellblade smiled finally at Wolverine's question

"Because I trained her, I was the only one who was safe around her when she lost her temper, with my…abilities, such as my regenerative powers and my reflexes I was the closest person to her in terms of powers and abilities. I knew how far to push before she'd break. I knew when she'd be old enough to go through the adamantium bonding procedure and survive. HYDRA may have created X-23 but I am the one responsible for making her the weapon she is today" he said emotionlessly. Wolverine grabbed the vampire by his shirt and hauled him up to his feet

"You're the one who told HYDRA they could put her through that at eleven years old. You're the one who took her childhood away, who turned her into a weapon, you're no better then they are, in fact you're worse, you're a scumbag cutthroat who doesn't give a damm about anything but if his next pay check clears" he yelled in his face, his eyes boring right into Hellblade calm dark pools. Then the vampire's eyes blazed with rage and he shoved Logan away from him and Weapon X landed roughly on the floor of his cell

"If I hadn't been there she'd have suffered far worse. I grew up in a worse place than she did and I was determined to make sure she didn't have to go through it as well. I read stories to her when she was too tired to even lift her head, I gave her a present every year on her birthday. I was the one who sabotaged HYDRAs monitoring equipment to let Dr Risman escape and killed her field handler to let her X-23 go rogue. I did more for her than you ever did" he snapped, Wolverine smiled

"Looks like you're not as professional as you think are you fangs?" he asked mockingly, Hellblade opened his moth to say something but quickly shut it again

"How do you know Logan? And why do you hate him so much?" Warren asked. Hellblade laughed darkly

"Why don't you ask him?" he said pointing accusingly at Wolverine

"Oh wait, you still don't have you memory back do you?" he added

"Well I'll tell you. Weapon X wanted a test subject, a guinea pig for their program. As much as it'll pain you to hear it you weren't their first choice Logan. I was. You're Weapon X Alpha, I'm Weapon X Prime" Hellblade told him, savouring every moment of Wolverines shock at the revelation

"And guess who was with me when I got caught? You. They went after me and when I needed you to back me up, you sold me out, you handed me right over. I got captured and spent the next six months being experimented on by that maniac in the black lab suit, but they couldn't bond the adamantium to my bones, my healing factor wouldn't let them. Then they caught you and I got thrown in a storage locker to rot. And after I got away I swore I'd rip that metal off your bones the first chance I got" he spat, glaring at Wolverine

"That's…that's a lie. It's got to be" Wolverine muttered

"It's not, I saw you run away like a kicked dog with my own eyes, let Xavier show you if you don't believe me" he told him

"I can't read you mind, it fractures" the Professor said, not wanting to read his mind, afraid of what he might find inside it, afraid of the vampire being right

"That's a subconscious reflex, if I concentrate I can stop it, or at least, show you the memory I want you to see" Hellblade replied

"Go on, I won't bite" he added, showing his fangs as he spoke. Professor Xavier wheeled over and placed his left hand on Hellblade's forehead, his right on Logan's and closed his eyes. Almost immediately all three were plunged into blackness and the memories of the vampire

Start flashback

They re-appeared in a snowy forest, the white blanket coating the deep green tops of the pine trees. A cold wind blew through the forest and a family of deer grazed in a clearing, digging through the snow with their hooves to get at the lush green grass trapped beneath it. The crunching sound of footsteps and gunfire made the gear scatter as Hellblade, looking slightly younger, and Wolverine, dressed in white camouflage fatigues came into the clearing

"I…think…we lost them" Hellblade gasped, panting and leaning over to catch his breath, digging his scimitars into the snow for support

"Yes, it certain looks like it" Wolverine told him, sounding a lot more formal than he usually did

"I really appreciate you lending me a hand, I guess after this we're even for that time I saved you, that mutant boy and Captain America back in the war" Hellblade, smiling as he straightened up

"Well, about me saving you…"Wolverine trailed off. Snow was shook from the bushes and shrubs around the clearing as dozens of men leapt up and trained their weapons on the vampire

"You…why would you do this Logan? We're friends" Hellblade asked, more shocked then angry

"Friendship doesn't pay the bills, sorry Hel. I'm sure Weapon X will treat you nice" Wolverine told him before turning around and walking away

"I'LL GOT YOU FOR THIS LOGAN, MARK MY WORDS I'LL GET YOU!" Hellblade yelled as the men opened fire. Wolverine saw Hellblade fall to the ground at his feet but he couldn't see Wolverine. Wolverine was just a phantom, not really there despite being able to pick up on all the scents, sights and sounds that Hellblade had that day, the bright red berries growing on the bushes, the sound of the shell casings dropping into the fresh, crisp snow, the scent of the gunpowder and cordite of the guns, and a scent that was very, very familiar.

End flashback

Professor Xavier brought them all out of the trance and had a very grave expression on his face

"Logan, that was…" the Professor began before Wolverine cut him off

"Wasn't me Charles. Fangs, you ever hear of a mutant called Mystique?" he asked the vampire who shook his head

"No, the name isn't familiar"

"You're joking, you don't know who she is?" Rogue asked

"I may be older than all four of you put together but that doesn't mean I know every single mutant on the planet" he replied irritably, confused as to why Wolverine was asking him about her

"Well, she's a shape shifter, and she'll work for anyone for the right price. Turning people against each other's her specialty" Wolverine told him

"So…that strange scent back then was hers?"

"Definitley, she might know how to mask it now but I'd know that scent anywhere, it was her that sold you out to Weapon X, not me" Wolverine said. Hellblade let out a groan and cast his gaze downwards

"I've been a fool. I knew you wouldn't have betrayed me for money. And now X-23's paid the price for my mistake and Sarah's…Sarah's…how can I tell X-23 that her mother is dead?" he asked them

"Wait, she's her mom?" Rogue asked

"Yes, well, her surrogate mother anyway. It was part of her agreement when she joined HYDRA. I think it was what made her betray them in the end" Hellblade replied, standing up with a murderous look in his eye

"I will track down Mystique and she will die screaming so loud she will lose her voice" he hissed

"Wait, maybe you should keep your promise to Dr Risman and save X-23 before you devote your life to revenge?" Rogue suggested

"Laura" Hellblade replied

"What?" Rogue asked

"Her name, before she left HYDRA, Sarah told me that was the name she wanted to give X-23. She said she deserved a name, that all children did, not a designation like X-23" he replied before turning to Wolverine

"This my problem, Laura is in HYDRAs hands because of me. I cannot ask you to fight my battle for me" he told him

"Actually, she's a student here at the Institute now, not your responsibility. We're going to rescue her, we don't need your help but we'll stand a better chance if you back us up" Wolverine replied

"I will assist if you permit me to" he asked the Professor, who nodded

"I already know enough about you to know I can trust you, go, Logan will lead the operation but you will act as a 'security advisor'" the Professor told him before looking at Logan

"Take whoever you think will be the most help, Hank will have the X-jet prepped in an hour" he said as before leaving the cell, flanked by Warren and Rogue. Wolverine looked at Hellblade

"Just like old times isn't it Logan?" Hellblade asked

"Yea I guess it is" Logan replied, feeling as though a great weight had been lifted from his mind

In the next chapter – The X-men go head to head with HYDRAs forces and an unexpected enemy makes her appearance

To be continued, all reviews and constructive criticism are appreciated and accepted


	9. The Serpent and the X

As always thanks to everyone who took the time tor eview, sorry about the delay in the update but my life's been hectic recently, what with exams and revision and whatnot

Disclaimer: I don't own the X-men, or HYDRA, but I do own all my OCs

Chapter nine: The Serpent and the X

The forest looked no less vast in night as it did in the daytime. The massive redwoods and pine trees stood like silent sentinels, coloured purest black in the night, they completely blocked out all light from the full moon to the forest floor below.

The X-jet blasted through the air above the dark forest, the serene night calm shattered as the metal behemoth shot overhead. Logan rose out of the pilots seat for Beast to take over and moved to the back of the plane to try something he'd never done before, a pep talk. Gripping an overhead rail for support he looked around the plane at the motley crew he and Hellblade had hand picked for this mission. Kurt was strapped in alongside his sister Rogue, Cyclops sat with his arms crossed, unused to going on a mission and not being in charge, Archangel flexed his wings, uneasy about being stuck inside a plane, even one as safe as the X-jet.

Along with the seasoned veterans was Doug, who'd chosen to use his new codename of Cypher, Medium, her Wildcard squad mate Illustrati, Fathom and rounding the team off, the cause of all the X-men's recent woes, the vampiric assassin himself, Hellblade, carefully inspecting his scimitars to make sure they hadn't been damaged when in the X-men's possession.

Everyone maintained the same strong silence, they all knew it wasn't a danger room session, or another brawl with the Brotherhood, HYDRA were the real deal. They fought dirty, took no prisoners and played for keeps, they wouldn't care if the X-men were defenceless or they couldn't handle their powers, they'd take them out the first chance they got, permanently. Tongues had a tendency to seize up at such times; regardless of how brave anymore might be feeling. Wolverine cleared his throat to get everyone's attention before speaking

"O.K, I've never tried this before so bear with me here. I'm not gonna lie to you, there's a chance you might get hurt, end up in the infirmary for a month, or not even make it to the infirmary when you get back from this mission. You all knew what you were getting into when you signed up for this so I expect you all to do your part, no matter what" Wolverine hoped he didn't sound too serious and in his first ever pep talk and from the looks on the younger students faces he knew it wasn't going well. Hellblade looked right at Logan and nodded slightly, Logan nodded back and the vampire undid his harness while Wolverine sat down and strapped himself into his, knowing his old ally could do a better job of encouraging the students to put their lives on the to save someone most of them didn't even like that much than he ever could. Hellblade straightened his cloak, cleared his throat and started his pep talk

"I know you all agreed to take part in this mission but given what would happen if you'd refused it wasn't something you could really say no to. You might be wondering why you? Why did Wolverine and myself pick you and not your friends, mentors and teammates? It's simple; you all have skills we'll need if this plan's going to work, whether it's hacking their computers (he looked at Cypher), recon (he looked at Kurt), firepower (he looked at Fathom) and just the feeling that you'll prove yourselves to be true X-men, the kind people like Magneto, Mystique and I have nightmares about going up against (he looked at Medium and Illustrati). Despite this, I'll give you a final chance to back out, you're children who aren't sure of themselves, going into a fight you might not live to see end of and against people who wouldn't think twice of killing you in cold blood, anyone in your place would be scared out of their mind, I know I'd be. That said, I won't hold it against you if you turn this mission down, X-23 wouldn't, Wolverine won't and neither will the Professor, your mentors or your team mates, so if anyone wants to back out now, raise your hand" no-one did. Satisfied the vampire pressed a button on a nearby console and a 3-D image appeared in the space in the middle of the plane. It showed a slice of a mountainside dotted with trees, a glacier and even a waterfall, HYDRAs Canadian base.

"We'll reach the target in two minutes. The jet isn't going to land or even go near the ground. It'll stay in a dead stop a hundred feet above this point (he pointed to a spot just to the left of the water fall, on the glacier) for twenty seconds, any longer and we run the risk of being fired upon by the bases defence systems" he told them

"Don't you mean being spotted by the defence systems?" Kurt asked

"No, I don't. They'll know we're there, there's a chance they know we're here now. As for how you get out of the jet, Archangel can take a couple of you, Nightcrawler can take a few more and Logan and myself can make our own way down. After that, we head down the glacier slope to the base" Hellblade replied as the jet closed in on the base.

X-23 eyelids fluttered open and she saw a cold steel wall, a very familiar cold steel wall. Her gaze flicked upwards to the ceiling and sure enough, the familiar skull with octopus tentacles was there, the symbol of the organization she'd spent her life either a prisoner of, or a fugitive from, HYDRA.

The door behind her slid open with a soft hiss and X-23 turned around to see Lady HYDRA walk in, flanked by her favourite henchmen, Omega Red and Gauntlet. With a primal cry she pushed herself to her feet and lunged at the trio, claws extended, intent on cutting all three of them down where they stood. She didn't get more than two steps before pain racked her body and she fell to the floor

"Bad girl, you should show more respect for your elders" Gauntlet chided as Lady Hydra held up a small remote control in her hand

"What…what did you do to me?" X-23 asked, even when she'd been growing up, HYDRA had never used anything like whatever had just caused her so much pain

"I thought you'd recognise it, it's your favourite toy after all," Lady Hydra said, pressing a button on the remote control. The beeping sound her ears picked up made X-23 realise exactly what HYDRA had done to her. Looking down she saw on her favourite gothic outfit, was a small electronic device attacked to her left arm, just above her elbow. Undeterred X-23 extended one of her hand claws and started cutting into the flesh around the tiny electric bomb. Lady Hydra smiled coldly as she saw her weapon try to take the device out

"I wouldn't mess with that if I were you, it's set to…"

"Explode yeah I already know that. And I don't care. I'd rather die than work for you and HYDRA again" X-23 interrupted, still cutting into her arm. Lady Hydra sighed

"I was afraid you'd say that, now we have to take matters into our own hands," she said, pressing the shock button again and once more X-23 dropped to the floor unable to continue removing the bomb. The door behind them opened again and a small, dirty, scrawny man with wild hair and a long trench coat appeared in the room, barely visible behind the hulking figure of Omega Red who he'd immediately hidden behind like a cowering mouse

"This is our latest hired help. Mastermind here will go into your subconscious, erase your recent memories and with them any traces of rebellion, in their place he'll make new ones, and you'll be back to your old, emotionless self, won't that be nice?" Lady Hydra said mockingly. With a cry of desperation X-23 pushed herself to her feet, ignoring the shock from the bomb and lunging at Omega Red. The Russian grabbed her by her neck with one hand

"Careful child, we wouldn't want our friend here getting hurt now would we?" he sneered, he threw her backwards, she crashed into the far wall head first and slid down it, leaving a small smear of blood where her head had hit.

"I assume you will be able to perform the procedure even if she's comatose?" Lady Hydra asked Mastermind

"Oh certainly, it will even make it easier" he replied, going over and moving X-23 away from the wall, handling her with surprising care

"I also assume you will keep your end of the deal and not let any maternal feelings for the weapon impede your work" Lady Hydra added sternly, sometimes with all the previously useful allies she'd made betray HYDRA, she wondered if the girl was worth the effort she'd put in to getting her back

"Of course not, she just reminds me of my own daughter, that is all. You just make sure you pay my fee" Mastermind replied, displeased that they'd accuse him of such a thing. He placed his hands on the sides of her head and started sifting through her assorted memories. Suddenly a shrill alarm sounded and a red light set high in the room started flashing brightly

"What's going on?" he demanded

"Nothing that concerns you, continue with your work" Lady Hydra commanded as she marched from the cell, Gauntlet following her with Omega Red taking up a guard position just outside

The X-jet hovered above the mountain and HYDRAs base. It had barely been visible before, it's light grey stone walls and dull steel buildings just lighter shades of black in the blackness of the mountain but as soon as the alarms had sounded lights began to flash on all over it, lighting up like a huge Christmas tree in the darkness of the Canadian wilderness.

As soon as the jet was steady the hatch opened and the X-men's assault on HYDRA began. Warren grabbed Fathom and Cyclops, relishing the cool night air blasting across his wings as he flew them down to the glacier. Nightcrawler placed a hand each on Rogue and Cypher before disappearing in a puff of smoke and brimstone, rep-appearing a hundred feet below. Medium turned into her ethereal form and floated down while Illustrati, who'd been drawing since before the plane had stopped, climbed aboard a flying carpet which soared effortlessly down to join the others, leaving just the two mission commanders behind

"Just curious, but how're you planning on getting down there?" Hellblade asked Wolverine

"Jumping, and you aint got no other option either," he said, running past the vampire to the open hatch

"Your memory's not back yet is it?" he asked Wolverine as Weapon X sailed by. He followed Wolverine to the hatch and jumped out after him, both freefalling side by side. Hellblade waved and proved the Professor and Beast right. He was a shape shifter. Suddenly Wolverine felt something shoot past him and saw a massive black shape descending towards the ground right before he went past it and got re-acquainted with the earth. Staggering to his feet he saw the black shape land o the ground in-between his crash site and where the X-men were grouped. It was a huge black bat, the same size as a human with obsidian eyes and gleaming white fangs, the bats features started to shift and change until Hellblade was standing in its place

"You always were stubborn" he told Wolverine

"You could've given me ride" he growled in reply

"You never asked" Hellblade replied, resulting in snickers and laughs form the other students

"Well what're you all waiting for? We've gotta get going or HYDRA's gonna come down on us like a ton of bricks" Wolverine snapped, prompting the mutants to take off running with Archangel flying overhead

"So, can you shape shift into anything else?" Nightcrawler asked Hellblade as they moved further down the sloping glacier

"As a matter of fact, yes" Hellblade replied, seemingly vanishing from sight. Nightcrawler looked down to see a large wolf with obsidian fur running alongside him towards the base

A few minutes later they reached the perimeter fence. The black wolf stopped and turned back into Hellblade

"Nightcrawler, you'll need to teleport us past it since…" he said before being interrupted

"It's just chain link aint it? Let's just climb it" Rogue said, reaching a hand out to grab hold of the fence. When her gloved hand touched it she let out a cry of pain and flew backwards

"…it's electrified" Hellblade finished. Archangel produced a syringe and started to stick it into his arm

"Wait, I'll heal her, save your blood for later" Hellblade told him, resting a hand on Rogues forehead. Her burned hands quickly healed and she sat up

"Thanks" she said, sporting a pair of fangs

"Next time wait for me to finish before you go off and do something, if you try that when we're in HYDRAs base it could be the last thing you ever do" he snapped in response. When he saw Rogues face his expression softened

"I'm sorry, one person has already lost their life thanks to my mistakes and I don 't want it to happen again. And Wolverine will probably gut me if any of you come to harm so please try and be careful" he said, holding out a hand

"You got a deal" she replied, taking his hand and letting him haul her to her feet

"Think you can get us all past in one jump elf?" Wolverine asked Nightcrawler

"Maybe, but I've never tried to teleport so many people at once before, I'll give it a shot" Nightcrawler replied. Wolverine shepherded everyone in as close together as possible and they all disappeared in a big puff of smoke and brimstone

They re-appeared on the other side of the fence, right next to the buildings of the base. Nightcrawler let out a moan and slumped to the ground, landing face up in the shallow snow on the cold, hard ground.

"Kurt" Rogue cried, kneeling down next to her brother, Wolverine knelt down as well and took a long look at him

"Relax Rogue, he's not hurt, he's just exhausted, looks like the elf's out for the count" Wolverine reassured her

"Archangel, can you fly him back to the pick up point?" Hellblade asked him

"No problem, but I could just heal him and we'd be able to stick around and help out" he replied

"No, your blood only works on physical wounds, he's mentally exhausted, besides with your wings you'd be a little cramped inside the base anyway so get going, we'll be fine" the vampire responded. Archangel, pulled a few vials of red liquid from a pocket of his uniform and handed them to the vampire, as soon as he saw them he knew exactly what they were, blood.

"I took this out when we were on the way here, one vial should heal a fatal injury, there's only three so make them count" Archangel told them

"We will, now get going before HYDRA realises we're here" Wolverine told him, Archangel nodded, picked up Nightcrawler and took off, disappearing into the night, towards the rendezvous point in the forest

"O.K, Cypher, this is where you come in, use your power to talk to the security system and make it let us in" Hellblade told Doug, who, having no idea how to make pleasant conversation with a frosty security interface on the outside of a heavily guarded building in the middle of the wilderness just leaned in close to it and listened.

As he did the faint whirring and clicks of the system grew louder and louder, soon they completely drowned out the hushed voices of the other X-men and more than that, he could understand them. Not translate them into English or even into human words but he understood the computer, he knew what it was 'talking' about. Muttering under his breath, he realised he was making strange sounds similar to the clicks and whirs of the security system, or as close as a human tongue could come to copying them. It asked him who he was, he told it he was a friend and he needed its help, it asked what it could do to help, Doug told it and a few minutes of very weird communication later the doors locks slid back and the door swung open a crack, inside it was almost total darkness, inviting the X-men inwards to explore its hidden depths and the horrors they might contain

"Well done Cypher, I'm impressed" Hellblade told him

"Thanks. I also got X-23…Laura's location. She's being held in the maximum security wing at the far end of the building" he said, feeling very pleased with himself. His power finally had a use at last

"Very well done. If I was a teacher at your school you'd definitely get an A+" Hellblade added, carefully nudging the door open with a scimitar. He listened for a few seconds, the wind outside dying down to a faint murmur as if responding to the vampires wish for silence. He called Logan over

"It looks clear. I can sense a heartbeat at the end of the corridor but it's slow, I think whoever's there, they're asleep. What do you think?" Hellblade asked him. Logan sniffed the air inside the building

"Not sure but I can't smell coffee or doughnuts, I'm pretty sure they're asleep too, but maybe we should check just in case" Wolverine replied, calling Medium over

"Go ghost and check the end of the corridor, if there's anyone there, possess them and bring them back down here" he told her, she nodded, turned ethereal and floated through the partially open door. A few seconds of silence followed then they heard a thud and footsteps coming down the hallway towards them

"You think she made it?" Rogue asked them over Wolverine's shoulder

"I hope so, otherwise, we're in big trouble, better get everyone ready just in case" he told her. She pulled off her glove, Fathom charged up his energy, Cyclops's fingers rested on his visor and Illustrati held his pen at the ready. Out of the darkness a shape emerged, when it got closer they saw it was a HYDRA foot soldier clutching a semi-automatic in his left hand by its strap. He was walking oddly, as if he was sleepwalking or drunk. As soon as the soldier reached the door Wolverine grabbed him, hauled him and slammed him up against the side of the building, three razor sharp adamantium claws pressed to his throat

"Don't, it's me, Medium" the soldier blurted out

"Prove it" Rogue replied

"When my team went through the danger room, Bryce screamed that the Institute was haunted when he first saw me use my powers" the soldier said. Illustrati nodded to show she was telling the truth and Wolverine retracted his claws and let go of the soldier. Medium floated out of him and the soldier regained control of his body, Wolverines claws immediately shot out again but he relaxed when he saw the soldier let out a moan, his eyes rolled upwards and he slumped to the floor

"What did you find out?" Hellblade asked Medium as he stashed the unconscious soldier high up in a tree

"I managed to use this guys access codes to trigger a security alarm at the far end of the base, everyone's going there right now. We've about ten minutes before they find out it's a wild goose chase and their boss sends them back here to check on their prisoner and I managed tot urn off al the security from here to Laura's cell" she told him

"Not bad, definitely A+ material" he replied as Wolverine, abandoning all thoughts of stealth, kicked the door the rest of the way open and the X-men surged forwards into HYDRAs base

"Y'know what you said about giving the kids As if you were a teacher?" Wolverine asked Hellblade

"Yes, what about it?" he replied as they pushed onwards, occasionally destroying one of the cameras as they passed them

"Well, I'm guessing after HYDRA tell everyone how you backstabbed them your mercenary career's gonna be in ruins"

"That would be a fair assumption. I suppose retirement wouldn't be so bad, I've been at this job for over a hundred years, most people only get a few decades" he replied

"Well, Cyclops is gonna take some time off, Jean's still at university, even with Archangel joining we're still gonna be short on staff and the X-kids don't exactly keep a low profile. We'd be happy to take you on, we could use the experience" Wolverine told him

"Ask me again after we get Laura back, then I'll give you my answer" Hellblade replied as the cell door came into view. Outside Gauntlet was still standing guard, leaning on the wall with his head resting on his chest, asleep. He'd have stayed that way if Cyclops, lacking the enhanced vision of Wolverine and Hellblade to know Gauntlet was asleep, raised his hand to his visor and let off a shot. The bolt of red energy struck Gauntlet high on his right side, hitting his shoulder. The HYDRA members eyes shot open

"What the…" he blurted out before Wolverine extended his claws and brought them down very hard on the side of his head. Letting out a groan he slumped down to the floor and a shrill, blaring alarm started to go off. Looking down Wolverine saw a control in Gauntlets right hand, which had been pushed by the weight of Gauntlets body pushing down on it. Cursing Wolverine kicked the control away for it to be blasted apart by a red beam

Wat'ds you do that for? We could've found a way to turn the alarm off" Wolverine snarled

"Well it's broken now, so deal with it" Cyclops replied abruptly. Wolverine knew Cyclops still wasn't over what had happened with Alex, and immediately regretted bringing him on the mission, it was meant to be a smash and grab with perfect timing, not somewhere you wanted a loose cannon with serious firepower

"Scott, calm down, this isn't like you" Rogue whispered, trying to calm him down, which failed, completely

"Yeah well too bad, I still need to tell my little brothers foster parents that he practically died on my watch, so excuse me if I'm a little preoccupied" Cyclops shot back. Rouge took a step back, Wolverine could see how hurt her eyes looked

"You're out of order Scott" he said, Scott let out a laugh

"You don't have a clue" he retorted, to which Wolverine extended his claws and Cyclops once again rested his finger precariously on the trigger of his red visor. Suddenly a scimitar blade appeared between the two

"Simmer down both of you, you can fight it out later, after we save Laura" Hellblade told them. Wolverine retracted his claws and Cyclops snorted and turned away

At Hellblade's direction Fathom raised a hand and blasted down the door with a burst of blue energy. The wreckage fell backwards and Wolverine and Hellblade advanced into the room. Their gaze fell on Mastermind, who had his hands placed on X-23s head, even Hellblade, who didn't know who Mastermind was, realised what he must be doing. Hellblade charged over and tore Mastermind off the young clone, hearing him land a few feet away and slid across the floor.

"You O.K kid?" Wolverine asked, trying to help her up only for X-23 to tear her arm from his grip

"Get back, you're just another mind trick he made, you're not real" she cried

"Take it easy kid, we're real" Wolverine told her

"You're lying! I know this is another one of HYDRAs plans to mess with my mind and it's not going to work" she yelled, extending her claws and slashing at Wolverine, opening up two long, thin wounds on his chest

"Laura, it's me. Logan and I came here with the X-men to save you, look, we're not holograms or mind tricks" Hellblade said softly, reaching out and placing his hand against he arm, to show he was solid, and really there. He also heard a lot of feet charging towards their location, he knew they had to get out quick, or they'd have to take on all of HYDRA.

He saw Mastermind approaching Wolverine from behind, and the motionless figure of another Mastermind on the floor a dozen feet away. He opened his mouth to shot a warning but it was too late, the first Mastermind formed his hand into a blade and drove it through Wolverines chest. He pulled it out and Weapon X dropped to the floor, not dead but out of commission

"What trickery is this?" Hellblade demanded, drawing both his scimitars and stepping in-between X-23 and the two Masterminds.

A patch of the wall flickered and disappeared, Omega Red stepped out from his hiding place. Cries, blasts and shots echoed in from the hallway outside the cell, the Mastermind on the floor pushed himself up to a sitting position and the second Mastermind features began to change, adapting a more feminine, bluish tone. Hellblade smelt the same strange scent he'd first sensed all those years ago when he'd been handed over to Weapon X

"Mystique!" he snarled. The shape-shifter gave him a nasty grin

"Hey Hellblade, glad you remember me"

In the next chapter – The Weapon, The Serpent And The Vampire comes to its conclusion with Hellblade forced to choose between getting his revenge or saving the clone he risked everything to protect and it's the clash of the Titans when Omega Red goes head to head with his old enemies Wolverine and X-23

To be concluded, please reivew. All reviews and constructive criticism are happily accepted and greatley appreciated


	10. Settling The Score

Disclaimer: I don't own the X-men or any other multimillion dollar Marvel characters

Thanks everyone who's reviewed so far, they're a big inspiration to keep writing

Chapter ten: Settling the score

The vampire remained completely still, unsure of what to do. Outside the number of explosions was dwarfed by the number of gunshots, meaning the X-men were losing their fight.

"Fangs, you take Mystique, I've got the steel squid" Wolverine called, leaping to his feet, extending his claws and running at the Russian. Hellblade heard footsteps behind and immediately held a scimitar out by his side

"Absolutely not, you're in no shape to be fighting anyone" he told X-23 sternly

"Come on, I'm fine, I can take him" she complained, Hellblade sighed

"Fine but play nice, don't pull any blows, make it quick and clean" he told her, lowering the blade and seeing her charge at Omega Red

"They grow up so fast don't they?" Mystique sneered mockingly, morphing her hands into blades and running at the vampire, who drew his other scimitar and responded in kind. The two met near the middle of the cell and locked blades, Mystiques bladed appendages blocked by Hellblade's scimitars as each one struggled to overpower the other

"Why did you do it? Why did you hand me over to Weapon X?" he asked her as he slowly gained the upper hand, she was much stronger than he thought she'd be

"The same reason you've killed over a thousand people. Money. It was nothing personal, just good business" she replied, forcing his scimitar blades downwards

Mystique pushed her bladed hands downwards, along the edge of Hellblade's swords. They slid up and over the hilts and started to cut through Hellblade's shirt and into his chest. Hellblade let out a soft cry of pain as Mystique moved her blades to impale the vampire through the chest, point first

"Looks like I win" she said triumphantly

"Maybe, but look what you've done" he responded, Mystique then realised. She'd impaled the vampire with both her blades while his hands were still free, and they both had very sharp weapons in them.

Before Mystique could blink the scimitars were raised upwards then they plunged down, opening deep wounds in both sides of Mystiques abdomen. Hellblade let out a cry of victory but Mystique just shook her head. Almost immediately the blue flesh that had been cut started to stretch and the wounds began to fill, after only a few seconds they'd vanished, completely healed

"I learnt a few tricks from Apocalypse" she told him, enjoying the look of surprise on his face, Hellblade realised his revenge would be a lot harder to get then he'd previously thought

Meanwhile Weapon X and his clone were wrapped up in battle with Omega Red. The Russian super-soldier had extended both tentacles and was swinging them around like a pair of flails, X-23 back flipped out of the path of one tentacle, which cracked the solid concrete floor of the cell exactly where she'd stood seconds before. At the same time Wolverine came at the HYDRA agent, extending his claws and slicing at the tentacle. As they connected he felt his claws touch the tentacle and then slid down it, pulling back he saw there was only a faint scratch on the metal

"Adamantium, a gift from HYDRA, quite surprising isn't it American?" he sneered, lashing out with the other tentacle which slammed into Wolverines midriff. Wolverines face contorted in pain for a second before he grabbed the tentacle, pinning it in place

"First of all, I'm Canadian and second, I bet when HYDRA gave you those they didn't make them shock proof" he replied, grabbing the spike like tentacle end and jabbing it into a circuit box in the wall. The Russian let out a scream of pain as electricity danced down the tentacle and racked his body. Wolverine was thankful his uniform came with insulated gloves

Outside Cyclops felled another HYDRA footsoldier with a well placed blast and shattered the weapon of another. Fathom and Rogue were sporting bullet wounds and Cypher was lying on the floor, a nasty purple bruise on the side of his head. Clapping his hands to his ears he watched as Illustrati's newly drawn sonic gun brought the nearby HYDRA soldiers to their knees, but saw yet more HYDRA forces flooding down the hallway

'Logan, whatever's keeping you in there, you'd better get done soon, we can't hold these guys off much longer' he thought grimly, firing another energy blast

Inside the cell X-23 paused as Omega Red writhed in agony from the electric shock, enjoying seeing one of her old tormentors suffering. Suddenly Omega Red levelled his gaze at her, his eyes wild with pain and rage, she thought she could see tiny lightning bolts dancing across his pupils as his other tentacle shot out, wrapping itself around X-23s left arm and more importantly, her adamantium claws.

When Wolverine saw what Omega Red was doing he moved to help but the tentacle he was holding was yanked out of his grip and driven into the side of his head, which hit the wall with a sickening crack. He went limp and slid to the floor, blood leaking from both ears and a large dark blue bruise on his temple. Then Omega Red drove the tentacle back into the circuit box, too full of hatred for the clone to care what Lady hydra would say when she found out she was dead

X-23s screams reached both Hellblade and Mystique, Hellblade took advantage of the distraction to knock Mystiques bladed hands aside and slash her across the abdomen and left leg, she dropped to the floor, al tendons in her left leg cut and lay there, looking up at Hellblade

The vampire raised both scimitars up, their tips pointing at Mystique's heart and was about to bring them down when he saw X-23 screaming in pain and hacking at the tentacle wrapped around her arm, trying to cut if off but barely even scratching it

"Looks like you've got a real dilemma haven't you vampire?" she said mockingly, pale blue blood tricking from her mouth. She shifted into Hellblade

"You can either get your revenge and let her die" she shifted into X-23

"Or you can save her and spare me" she resumed her normal form

"So Hellblade, what's it gonna be?" she asked him. His eyes narrowed and the scimitars came down, Mystique closed her eyes and heard two dull thuds

Opening them she saw she wasn't dead and that Hellblade had buried his blades on either side of her, in the concrete floor of the cell. Yanking them back out he ran at Omega Red and grabbed the tentacle embedded in the circuit box. He ignored the immense pain from the electric shock and pulled as hard as he could and the tentacle was torn from the box. Omega Red cursed in Russian and tried to pull the tentacle out of Hellblade's grasp but Hellblade refused to budge

Drawing on of his scimitars Hellblade sent it spinning through the air towards the Russian war machine, it hit his head with a clang and Omega Reds world went black as he dropped face first to the ground. Hellblade stepped over the motionless Russian and ran to X-23

"I told you you weren't ready for a fight yet" he scolded, unwrapping the tentacle entangled in her claws and picking up the tiny bomb that had dropped off X-23 after she'd been shocked

"I could have beat him, you didn't need to get involved" she replied, they both smiled and X-23 wrapped her arms around him

"Thank you for saving me" she whispered

"It's my fault you ended up here in the first place" he told her, breaking away

"Like you always said, it's nothing personal, just business, I know Dr Risman didn't blame you either" she said

"You…you know?" he asked, his voice barely above a whisper, she nodded

"Come on, let's get out of here, I never want to see this place, or HYDRA, ever again for as long as I live" he said, helping her up

Suddenly Hellblade felt something clamp onto his right hand, looking down his eyes widened when he saw what it was. HYDRAs tiny explosive device had re-activated and was now attached to him!

The wall behind them both exploded and a familiar figure stepped forwards. Lady Hydra laughed evilly as she brushed dust and chips of stone from her uniform

"You X-men are becoming a major thorn in our side, almost as big a one as SHEILD. And don't think your betrayal will go unpunished Hellblade, consider this your severance payment" she told them, producing the small controller form earlier and pressing a button on it. Hellblade heard a small beeping sound and knew what was going to happen in a few seconds time

"Take care of yourself Laura, and never become what HYDRA tried to make you, ever" he told her before running forwards, putting as much distance between them as possible, and getting as close to Lady Hydra as he could

"HELLBLADE NO!" X-23 cried as the bomb on his left hand detonated, the vampire disappearing in a ball of fire and smoke

"NOOOOOO!" X-23 screamed, sinking to her knees, her eyes filling with tears

"Looks like he wasn't immortal after all" Lady Hydra gloated. X-23 looked up at her, murderous rage blazing in her eyes as her hand claws extended, intending to make Lady Hydra pay dearly for what she'd just done

Lady Hydra took another few steps forward, bringing her pistol to bear on the clone

"Now now, your mother and the closest thing to a parent you've ever had just gave their lives for you, be a good girl and don't let their sacrifice be for nothing" she chided, not noticing the movement on the floor behind her.

A blackened and burnt form pushed itself up, grabbed Lady Hydras arm, let out a snarl and sank its fangs into her forearm. She screamed and fired at it, trying to kick it away then hitting it with the butt of her pistol when that failed but it refused to budge. As he drank the burns that covered half of his face faded and Hellblade started to regain his normal appearence. After a few more seconds Lady Hydra blacked out and she sank to the floor

"Bleh, her blood tastes terrible, worse than snake blood" Hellblade complained as he picked himself up. The massive dose of blood he'd drank had restored his body, aside from a few burns still present on his arms and face

"How'd you do that?" Wolverine groaned, still groggy from Omega Reds attack

"It's how my healing factor works, I just convert red blood cells, blood basically, into other kinds of cells, so if I get a big enough dose, I can heal anything" he said as X-23 went over to Lady Hydra and picked up her remote control. She pressed a button and another warning light went off

"**WARNING, SELF DESTRUCT ACTIVATED, ALL PERSONEL EVACUATE THE BASE IMMEDIATLEY, BASE DESTRUCTION IN T-MINUS FIE MINUTES"** a computer voice said over the intercom

"Let's get going" Wolverine said, the other two were already ahead of him and had already set off running for the cell door

Outside Cyclops and the others had already set off running too and the group tore down the hallway, blasted down the door and was out into the cold Canadian night air

"**BASE DESTRUCTION IN T-MINUS FIVE MINUTES"**

"Dammit, we'll never get up the glacier in time" Cyclops cursed as they reached the fence

"Don't need to shades, Hanks got that covered" Wolverine called as the X-jet descended from the sky with Archangel and Nightcrawler waving from the open hatch. The X-men boarded and the jet took off, behind them HYDRAs base disappeared in a massive fireball

The next day…

Bobby threw a football in the air as Sam rocketed up to catch it, lost control and crash-landed in the fountain, drenching Jubilee and Boom Boom. Bobby laughed as Cannonball ran back indoors, dodging explosive spheres and green energy blasts

"So, has Colonel Fury got in touch yet?" Professor Xavier asked Wolverine

"Yea, SHEILD checked out the compound but they didn't find any trace of Lady Hydra, Gauntlet or Omega Red"

"You don't sound surprised" the Professor noted

"If they survived their air base getting destroyed, they'll survive that too" he replied

"What about Mystique?"

"What about her? We left her there in that base but Kitty said she's back at the Brotherhood boarding house, guess we had to know she'd survive" he told the Professor, looking up at the roof, where Hellblade was sitting, looking out at the setting sun

"Has he made his decision yet?" the Professor asked

"Yea he has. He said he'd be happy to stay here but he's not sure he'll stay, something about still feeling responsible for what happened but he wants to stay to keep and eye on X...Laura" Wolverine replied

Hellblade sat up on the roof, looking at the setting sun and holding a photo up in his left hand, he heard someone sit down beside him on the roof and looked around to see X-23

"You knew her didn't you? My mother" she asked

"Yes, I just wish you could have" he replied

"Maybe I can, can you tell me about her? What kind of person she was, that kind of thing" X-23 asked, Hellblade smiled

"What would you like to know?"

To be continued in The Next Evolution: Back From The Future

All reviews and constructive criticism are accepted and greatly appreciated


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